How to get ahead: Do nothing well.

So, let me parse the subject of this post for you. It’s not, “Do nothing well,” in the sense that you should be incompetant at everything. It’s, “Do (nothing) well,” in the sense that one should be very good at doing stuff whose content is absolutely inconsequential.Why?

Here’s my dilemma, or at least, my perception of it. Last year, I stepped up to the plate. I learned the system I had to work on well, and did so to the best of my ability. I busted ass, blew through my work like nobody’s business, and most of the time, was able to go home on the weekends and chill, instead of slaving away in the office – even after helping other people out.The problem is that for next year, half our team is leaving. Two people are moving on to completely different projects, one person is moving into design, and that leaves me, the other guy who started on the same day as me, and one of the guys from last year.This means that we now have *less* combined experience than the team at the start of last year, and because I was good at what I did, now I’m indispensible.

On the other hand, one of the production interns worked really hard last year. She was here long hours, blah blah blah. But what did she do? She took notes. She worked on the manual. She wrote object descriptions for the catalog. Crap work, mostly, when you get right down to it.Next year? She’s on the design team.This makes no fucking sense to me.

We just got through brainstorming presentations, and the team I’m on’s presentation *blew away* every other team’s presentation by *miles.* It was entirely based on a concept that I’ve been working on since the day I set foot in the studio, and though the team made a lot of excellent additions and tweaks, every single important idea in the presentation was solely mine. I know that sounds like I’m diminishing the contribution of the rest of the team, and I totally, totally, totally don’t mean to, because it wouldn’t have been nearly as “solid” without them, and some of the core ideas are immeasureably strengthened.But the fundamental, system-level innovation is mine. Period.

Now, I’m stuck in a situation where there’s a non-zero chance that my ideas will be fundamental to next year’s game, and I’ll literally have almost zero input into the practical design of their execution. This is *EXCRUCIATING* to me, and though I realize that this is much more input than you get at most places, EVERY MOMENT I think about the fact that this production intern who took notes last year will have more input into next year’s game than me is *mindboggling* and makes my job satisfaction fall through the floor.ARGH.

I feel like Zell Miller even sitting here thinking about it. It makes me *furious*.