I see people around me who strongly align with stupid ideas/visions of higher ups. I am sure they realize the technical flaws but they still very disturbingly align. Is this a good strategy for career growth or will it fire back?
You bring up concerns. You know about criterion X but the decision makers above your pay grade might need to consider criteria Y and Z that you're not knowledgeable about. Y or Z might be selfish but you find that out over time and then decide whether or not to stay.
You can always vote with your feet when the direction is non salvageable and bothers you to the core.
Your are responsible for our own wellbeing first and foremost. It's not your job to help the higher-up, who make much more than you do and who will lay you off if it serves their interest, do their job.
What do you mean by do their jobs?
Their job as in fostering environment that discourage such behavior and do not incentivize honest discussion as opposed to rewarding those who kiss up/politicking. That's primarily their job. Minor technical quibbling is trivial. But leadership is more than sitting back and expecting others to ass kiss you/compete for your attention.
If you have limited vision for your career and are a sell out it's a good strategy , frankly having the awareness you have is pretty healthy and helps you sleep at night , you may or may not grow at your current company but long term you will outshine those maggots that believe anything they are told
Wow what terrible advice... if you truly enjoy the company and what you do and have some self respect .... you will work on optimizing your ability to sell your ideas and get buy-in... this skill is actually one of the traits successful leaders who have advanced and accelerated have. But what convinces one doesn't mean it will work for another... it requires emotional intelligence study how you nurture that and you will find that what you perceive as political is actually someone whose emotional IQ is higher than yours in that they have discovered what the others are motivated by and have framed their initiatives and ideas as a winwin for all parties
that is good if you only have to convince your boss. if the shit rolled down from 5 levels above, you dont have access to these people and your boss doesnt know enough to convince his even if he agrees with you.
Go with the flow and always have plan B ready.
Maybe you could ask them sincerely and without the judgmental tone you have here what they like about the ideas. Keep asking questions. Be humble and don't assume people who disagree with you are idiots.
I heard that President Obama would deliberately test for this with new people. In meetings he'd single out the mousy/quiet person & interrogate their views. He'd sometimes take a position just to see if the new person was afraid of disagreeing with The President Of The United States (tm) If they weren't, they got invited back. In a toxic/hostage environment, yah going with the flow & hiding is probably a good idea. But if you can see around corners, surface things other ppl don't see or haven't thought about, and be able to do it *tactfully* that's an asset. If you can sell your way of thinking multiple levels UP the chain & DOWN the chain, you're doing smart things. Even if you're overruled if you think your way is better it's important/essential to speak up. Especially with all the uncertainty coming down the pipe (this goes for every frigging company these days) we need lots of leaders. This'll sound like MBA-speak, but google "manage up" (& never use that phrase out loud)
That's funny. I heard the same about Trump.
Trump rather have the mousy-quiet-yes man in his camp. Any disagreement or challenge to him and they're gone.
Speak up but just don't do it in a condescending like many software engineers do. You need to have people skills if you want people to listen to you and follow your ideas.
It's the safe strategy. If you go against the flow you have a lot of work ahead of you to convince them your way is better.
So your answer is career growth or fire back?
short term yes, long term no.