The first job I took in Kansas City looked like a clear win on paper. Same kind of role I'd had back in San Diego, but better pay, and the cost of living had dropped enough that the raise felt like a bigger raise than it actually was. Win-win, right there in the numbers. I remember doing the math more than once just to make sure I wasn't imagining it. What the numbers didn't show me was the org chart underneath the org chart. That job turned into a daily political battle — not one big blowup,...