> Succeed. Fail. Get a star performance review. Get a mediocre performance review. Fuck around and do nothing. It doesn't seem to matter.
It actually matters because no matter how much you're getting paid, your time is on the line. You could be doing something better. If you decide to do something, and start it, why not do a great job?
Some people just work for money. Alternately, in some organizations you can work as hard as you want but be prohibited from doing a great job. e.g. If the product design is fundamentally flawed and you can't convince people of that you might not feel like doing a great job.
Suppose you're working on a 5 year old project that has a small and dwindling user base, the only contact you get from users is complaints and requests for features that are strictly forbidden by legal. The UI is incomprehensible to users and product management keeps trying to make it more complicated or add features that won't be useful. Would you be focused on doing a great job, or just putting in time while you looked for something else and played Ping Pong?
I understand what you're saying, I too get completely tilted when things aren't working out. But, soon after, I get overwhelmed by guilt and start focusing on doing a great job again.
It actually matters because no matter how much you're getting paid, your time is on the line. You could be doing something better. If you decide to do something, and start it, why not do a great job?