This is it, pretty much. If you do your own thing and it works, then you'll come out well. If you do your own thing and it fails, you'll look bad, while if you do what yiu're asked you're going to be much safer. So if you go off-piste you should have some confidence it'll work.
> if you go off-piste you should have some confidence it’ll work
Just remember that the definition of “working” is in the eyes of your manager. Assuming they’re competent and not pointy haired boss, then they might have different goals and priorities to you. I’d you end up diverging from them, even if what you did is technically good and a good fit for the project, you’ll probably have a bad time.
Yes, you do still need to solve a problem that is considered a problem and at least around the same level of importance of whatever you were supposed to be working on, preferably greater.
