[eropple]

I do pretty much the same thing he does. I don't like playing the game and schmoozing, I do because it's better for me long-term. I build systems and write code that can back up the talk, because that's not optional--but if all I did was write code, it doesn't matter how good it is. Nobody would engage with it in the first place to have feedback to incorporate.

This is a social profession. Humans come first. Actual code quality is probably fifth. People who listen, valuable though they often are, are not the ones who get noticed--for any reason, good or bad.