

Does Steve Jobs' spectacular success irritate engineers and scientists? - amichail

After all, it does show that management and marketing skills can blow away engineering and science skills in terms of personal success and influence on the world.
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stonemetal
I don't know what your definition of personal success is, but if I had been
Jobs I would have been an utter failure by my own personal standards. I don't
think your average scientist defines success in terms of personal wealth
accumulation, because they picked the wrong road to get there.

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geophile
I'm not irritated. Having been in many startups, I can really appreciate a
good manager and a good marketer. These people are incredibly rare, and it is
much more fun, (not to mention financially rewarding), to work in a company
that has such people.

What does irritate me is a consequence of the fact that bullshit works so well
in the realms of management and marketing. It's difficult to distinguish
talent from convincingly-mouthed empty words, and as a result you get idiots
running companies into the ground. That's what irritates me. Especially since
the idiocy is visible to me, an engineer, and not to the VCs, and sometimes
not to the other execs.

As for one set of skills "blowing away" another -- you need both to build a
successful company.

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kstenerud
Influence? Of course. You influence people, so influence is politics. Politics
is perception. Shape people's perception and you gain their power for your own
use.

Personal success? That's a personal thing. Not everyone wants to be a big time
leader.

Science & engineering open up new possibilities, but nobody will go there
unless someone of influence herds them into it, so it's a symbiotic
relationship. The problem comes when the influencer goes astray and in doing
so leads others astray.

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Joakal
There are some smart engineers and scientists who do not want to be in the
spotlight because it's both a blessing and a curse. Not everyone is out for
the glory.

This excludes the academic community where it's more of a blessing to be
popular and revered as you'll get more cooperation and less barriers.

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mapster
I would hope that an engineer or scientist is happy to be doing what they
love. I imagine S. Jobs was happy building companies than being an engineer.
You are successful doing what you love while earning a decent living.

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vonsydov
i.e. what your parents told you is incorrect

they didn't mention you might be jealous and sad later

