You just shouldn't take anything too seriously. I used to resent being paid by the hour instead of based on deliverables.

But nowadays, in the current environment, I am extremely glad that I get paid hourly. It's a different skillset. There's a lot of acting and sometimes drama involved but thankfully I'm good at both engineering and acting... Also, I kind of like drama. Anyone who cares about their work, in this economy, is delusional (probably had it easy) and it's a matter of time before reality gets to them as it did to me and many others.

I feel kind of bad for colleagues who take their job too seriously though. I can feel their pain but I can't tell them to relax because I have to also act my part and pretend to feel passionate.

However, my real passion these days is money hitting my bank account. Puts a smile on my face. The less hard I worked, the happier I am. And I'm paid by the hour. So logically I need to create situations to maximize my lock-in factor, above all else.

If you can keep up the pretense for 2 years, then that's enough to keep you employed perpetually. So engineers should focus more on acting skills and other soft skills and less on technical stuff.

Look at all the people in management roles who made big money, none of them have technical skills. It's all about acting. If they built their entire career out of bullshit, surely I can build the second half of mine out of bullshit also! By the time I retire, I'd still have contributed more value than them!