How do you ACTUALLY excel at a new programming job?

I am not interested in devoting my heart and soul to a company. I have been burned too many times. I will not ever work crazy hours. However, I am interested in dedicating myself to programming and computer science, and performing to a high standard of excellence in that regard. I love coding so of course I want to do well, just without being too emotionally invested. Plus, I like raking in cash. 

I can't find the reddit quote right now, but basically, the company's project isn't your baby. You're just the nurse. 

I study a lot outside of work. But it's not enough. You can excel at your own coding projects and learning academic topics too. But that may not translate to your actual job. I'm super motivated when working on my own stuff, or when working on academic projects. I have a harder time when at a company. 

When you look up questions like this, the answers are always super vague. "Ask lots of questions!" Or, the worst one: "Learn the codebase!" (Thank you, Captain Obvious! I mean, I was planning on not learning the codebase, actually! What a novel idea!) 

I'm still figuring this out. What seems to have helped so far:
  • Ask an annoying amount of questions. This is the more specific version of "ask questions". Even if you feel like the answer should be really obvious -- if you don't know, you don't know. So when you are shadowing other developers, ask questions about everything. 
    • I like to just put on music and forget about the world as I immerse myself into a problem. Figure it out myself. This doesn't really work in a corporate job, though. The time constraints are generally too tight. Ergo, ask TONS OF questions until you understand the parameters of the issue. Be annoying. 
    • I tried this last week because after getting laid off from DreamWorks I've started getting a bit reckless and less fearful with my problem-solving approaches. And I was able to solve a pretty big bug by doing that. A combination of my own logic and the knowledge I got from others. 
  • Timebox. I don't cut lunch less than 30 minutes. I almost always do 60 minutes. If I do have to cut it, I'm taking an equivalent break later. There is no honor in just blindly grinding out more hours, when timeboxing will get you more work done in less time. 
  • Honoring your personal goals. If I start to get really sleepy at work or something -- rare now with my strategic caffeine use, but it does happen -- I have started pulling up my Notion board and polishing my goals here and there. Taking time to think about my personal coding studies and projects, my art, and my writing is enough to recharge and re-motivate me. After all, the more knowledge I can pick up while on the clock, the easier my personal coding studies and projects will be. 
    • Similarly, I have been getting a little bit more assertive about boundaries. I am trying hard to achieve a lot to balance it out. 
What's better than a list of tips, though, is an algorithm. Programmers often like to take an algorithmic approach to everything. I know I certainly do. Hopefully, I'll be able to come up with one, in time. 

That said: I do think I eventually want to work fully on my own -- fully self-employed. That's the goal I'd like to get to within the next 5 years. I don't know how that will work with my concurrent desire to work in theme parks. But reminding myself of my incoming game dev and app dev projects gets me excited to keep coding. And if I go back to study engineering at some point, then it will be easier to balance that with writing, art, and coding if I don't also have a job on top of that. If I'm supporting myself fully independently. 

For now, though, it's basically gonna be 40 hours at work, 25 hours on my own stuff. Yep, it's gonna hurt lol. The only way out is through. 

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