I'm a strategic thinker. I have been, almost my entire career. I write software that lasts decades, and have authored systems that took ten years to mature.

The issue is that I have almost never been allowed to express, communicate, or implement my strategies.

"Strategic thinking" is an ego thing. Only "big bosses" are "allowed" to "think strategically." If those of us, down in the trenches, "dare" to think strategically, we're being "uppity."

What a nightmare. At my last company, I foresaw the problems that eventually resulted in the company falling down (and my team being made redundant), at least a decade in advance. I remember being called a "Cassandra," and also being told that it "wasn't specific enough."

For example, when the iPhone first came out, I borrowed one of my employees' new iPhone, and took it up to Marketing. I said "This is gonna be trouble."

I was laughed out of the office.

Ten years later, the company's business was in shambles; almost entirely because smartphones ate their lunch. I remember hearing people whining about "How could we have foreseen this?"

These days, I write software on my own. I don't have anyone telling me "Go away kid, yer bodderin' me."

It's been working well.