My impressive work in a free-lance employment as very senior software developer attracted the attention of the CTO. So secure my knowhow and positive influence long-term I was hired last week on a system architect position that was specially created to match my salary requirements (basically my Happy Price). The team applauded when the decision was made official.

Strictly the salary is less than the free-lance rate (after adjusting for insurance, tax and misc risk padding) but the created position is basically exactly what I'd always wished for.

There are some risks that I might fail to live up to expectations (my own included) - but one reason I took the risk is that I didn't fail in anything larger for quite some time and apparently I'm not trying hard enough (see also What have you recently tried, and failed at?).

I'm grateful for LessWrong teaching me (mostly by providing just the right references) lots of social skills without which this just wouldn't have been possible.

What I find interesting is that my development which feels so genuinely an improvement and change from my earlier self is that nonetheless this transition from mostly development work in a team to a position with more supervision and political aspects appears to be normal for my age (41) and in a way even neccessary to avoid dead ends in coding.

The risks of the position are to a large part related to company politics of which I have just recently got a taste of. I have seen Political Skills which Increase Income but I'm not sure that this really helps me solving politics games that might wreak havoc on my still largely technical plans. I'd appreciate input on how to deal with politics impact on technical plans. One source I have already used is Driving Technical Change by Terrence Ryan.