At least in my experience. Most large companies have something that's working quite well and brings in all the money, which means your particular product or feature doesn't really matter. Plenty of times I've spent up to 6 months building a feature only for some upper management or disagreement somewhere result in the whole thing never being released. But it doesn't matter because my 6 months of wages don't really matter much in the companies big picture which is still on track.

So I don't sweat about getting work out as fast as possible when immense waste happens that I don't have control over. If I was in a very small company where I had reason to care and control over things, I'd be far more incentivized to work harder.

> If I was in a very small company where I had reason to care and control over things, I'd be far more incentivized to work harder.

Exactly. This is the point being missed by the people saying that only some people want to work hard and they go to startups. Everyone would if they were closer to the stakes of their work (impact, decision making, accountability, authority etc)

Not being a stakeholder in them yeah. Which doesnt even necessitate power, but even just the right to be informed and kept abreast of them. The author makes this point in the article