>its best to position yourself not as on the side of the "code" but as a EQUAL PARTNER to leadership/product/whoever has power.
That sounds so utopian to me that it's practically ridiculous. Never in my 40+ years working in tech has any higher-up treated me or thought of me as anywhere near equal. I try to treat the people on my team that I manage as close to equal as I can, but the higher ups would really have zero compunction about "letting me go" in favor of the new hot whoever that someone introduced them to recently, or whatever. They very rarely listen to reason about any issue and it's rare that I'd even get to talk to them.
It's been like this at every startup and company I've ever worked for.
That sounds so utopian to me that it's practically ridiculous. Never in my 40+ years working in tech has any higher-up treated me or thought of me as anywhere near equal. I try to treat the people on my team that I manage as close to equal as I can, but the higher ups would really have zero compunction about "letting me go" in favor of the new hot whoever that someone introduced them to recently, or whatever. They very rarely listen to reason about any issue and it's rare that I'd even get to talk to them.
It's been like this at every startup and company I've ever worked for.