[strickjb9]

I can relate to your last paragraph. I used to (and still) source dive to find good workarounds to library issues. But I never asked for permission, I just did it. I also delivered on time.

Nowadays, I'm a team lead and I am guilty of telling people "not to go there" (about half the time). It's funny because it actually conflicts with my opinion that I want people to dig in! The choice to "dig in" is a personal risk/reward. It's a risk that an engineer must take while practicing good time management. Asking your manager is akin to making them take that risk for you (the risk of wasted time, passing deadlines, etc).

My crappy advice is... ask for forgiveness, not for permission. If you're a good engineer, you'll come out on top!

[Glyptodon]

I don't disagree with you, but I also think there are situations where (particularly if you aren't privy to the big picture) it's a good idea to have some kind of sounding board to run things off of before diving/jumping in, though that may be a bit tangential to the point at hand.

Maybe more to the point, I don't think my behavior at the time was an attempt at pushing the risk up the chain as much as it was a manifestation of fear/anxiety that I'd somehow be outside of company expectations/norms or would end up spending a bunch of time working around/fixing something that had already been solved in a way that I, as a newer employee, just didn't know about.