Depends on where you work. I work for a 24,000-person enterprise, and I definitely have the freedom to do this. However, this is in large part due to my direct management—they encourage and enable me to do this, despite disfunction in some other parts of the org.

Perhaps maximized cognitive potential isn't compatible with most corporate jobs.

who said any of this has anything to do with a corporate job? do it in the morning, the weekend; then use the benefits of increased cognitive potential at work?

The phrase "maximize potential" reeks of corporate performance, not personal growth. At least to me it does.

But... if you maximize your cognitive potential it'll make you clever enough to realize you should change jobs, n'est-ce pas?

Perhaps because thats the contexts in which you hear it most often.

"Creative critical thinking and novelty seeking especially disturb management."

Not always.

If you can use your social intelligence to get your bosses peers to respect him more, I can assure you he/she will approve of that.

A large corporate body is a political entity, the product is only 30% of it. Call on your EI Jedi Powers. Sadly, most of them are kind of from the dark, or maybe 'grey' side, but hey.

But yes, large corporations usually have some kind of leverage or de-facto monopoly, and any significant change can risk the goose that lays the golden egg. So, they can be systematically averse to change, for good reason.

Disruptors value change because from a position of little power in a static system, it's the only way to gain power. But at some point, disruption becomes more of a risk than an opportunity.

Large consumer and retail banks are probably the best example of this.