> And then you risk people making stupid decisions, which you have to fix later on, because you didn't attend the meeting.

Unless your head is on the line, why do you care?

Your head might not be, but you might find yourself being unhappily cleaning up a mess for months

Some people want the projects they're involved with to actually be successful?

Someone explicitely asked for your input, you refused and they fucked up. Your head might nor roll, but you won't be unscaved either. If it's not as your responsibility, it will be by the size and impact of the fuckup.

IMHO it'l should be the same approach as any other human communication: not everything can be fixed, and at some point you'll need to compromise.

Some people talk slowly, will you refuse to listen to them if they don't speed up to some given wpm ? Some take time to come to their actual point. It might be utterly uncomfortable, but if they actually tend to have very good points, you'll probably bear with it.

As a manager or even a technical leader, your head IS on the line, it just might not seem so obvious.

Rollout delays, customer debacles, etc all shape your image to promo panels.

If you’re just a junior engineer, it’s not like it will be held against you, but you certainly missed an opportunity to demonstrate ownership and make a name for yourself as one of the 1 in 20 people who aren’t NPCs.

Because caring about your work, the people around you, and the quite frankly stuff in general is healthy and gives life meaning.

If you go somewhere 8 hours a day, you'd like that place to matter to you. Anything else is just depressing.