Excellent post. It's more on the management/freedom side of things, your point, but it's very true. You work with cool people that allow you some freedom in the creative process, you'll grow and learn far more than the sort of situation you were in.
it takes a real leader go getter type personality to be able to overcome bad leadership... and that's only if the rest of the management lets you. Problem is the guy above you's ego is probably not receptive to being upstaged. I quit my job as a pixel artist for a mobile game company recently because the 'creative'…