There is an entire genre of aphorisms to tell our young turk. Let's see: the nail that sticks up gets hammered down. The clever hawk hides his claws. etc, etc.

Work diligently, but with sufficient deliberation to achieve the company's exacting quality standards. Document your steps religiously. Hammer out hundreds or thousands of pages of specification documents, since specs always resemble forward progress. Teach your junior employees, who might be ignorant in the way of the world, how things are actually done, and most particularly how they are actually done here. With due deliberation.

Now, of course, my company was totally different, because we would never slack off like that. But, you know, I've heard stories of how things are done at places I don't have near-feudal loyalty towards.

The context there is a US gov employee who has a huge tedious memo in her email. (It's an acceptable use policy on toilet paper use and the prohibited sharing of that precious resource.) We get treated to a long Stephenson treatise on how to properly handle such a memo (skim at a rate that suggests reading rather than skimming, go back occasionally at random intervals - as if rereading details, etc.). It's very well done.

     Y.T.'s mom pulls up  the new memo, checks the  time, and starts reading
  it. The estimated  reading time  is 15.62 minutes. Later, when Marietta does
  her end-of-day statistical roundup, sitting in her private office  at  9:00
  P.M.,  she will see the name  of each employee and next to it, the amount of
  time spent  reading this memo, and  her reaction,  based on the time  spent,
  will go something like this:

     Less than 10 min. Time for an employee conference and possible attitude
       counseling.
     10-14 min. Keep an eye on this employee; may be developing
       slipshod attitude.
     14-15.61 min. Employee is an efficient worker, may sometimes miss
       important details.
     Exactly 15.62 min. Smartass. Needs attitude counseling.
     15.63-16 min. Asswipe. Not to be trusted.
     16-18 min. Employee is a methodical worker, may sometimes get hung
       up on minor details.
     More than 18 min. Check the security videotape, see just what this
       employee was up to (e.g., possible unauthorized restroom break).

    Y.T.'s mom  decides  to  spend  between  fourteen and  fifteen  minutes
  reading the memo. It's better for younger workers to spend too long, to show
  that they're careful,  not  cocky. It's better for  older  workers  to go  a
  little  fast, to  show good management  potential. She's pushing forty. She
  scans through the memo,  hitting the  Page Down button at reasonably regular
  intervals,  occasionally  paging back up  to  pretend to reread some earlier
  section. The computer is going to notice all this. It approves of rereading.
  It's  a small  thing, but over a decade or so this stuff really  shows up on
  your work-habits summary.