4 ms·

Yeah I generally agree with this take. Of course on HN and other technical sites the opinion "lol engineers should run companies" gets a lot of play, but plenty

Yeah I generally agree with this take. Of course on HN and other technical sites the opinion "lol engineers should run companies" gets a lot of play, but plenty of engineers tank companies and don't get posted here with the alternative viewpoint. Intel made a calculated bet, lost, and furthermore made a handful of other bad business decisions. We focus a lot on the latter part when in reality it's unlikely the "business" decisions were the primary reasons for failure... it very well may have been technical problems led by engineers in the first place. I don't think Intel acted irrationally. Last, this is the journey of almost all industries. The titans become too complacent, set for disruption by other smaller companies / outsiders. This is just the natural course of business due to inertia. Intel is hardly alone here. EDIT: All that being said, the right man for the job is in the CEO chair. I personally believe he always should've had the role. We'll see how Gelsinger turns it around. I am optimistic.

p1necone 4y ago
Engineers should be CEOs? Eh, probably not necessary and even a bad idea when you get past the early stage. Engineers should run engineering companies? Yes, absolutely. The CEO is not the only position that "runs" the company - there should at the very least be a CTO that has equal political clout in terms of long term decision making.
tablespoon 4y ago
> Yeah I generally agree with this take. Of course on HN and other technical sites the opinion "lol engineers should run companies" gets a lot of play, but plenty of engineers tank companies and don't get posted here with the alternative viewpoint. Honestly, it's probably not so much that engineers should run companies, but that MBA/finance-types shouldn't (mainly because it seems their conventional wisdom has collected a lot of toxic ideas).

p1necone 4y ago

Engineers should be CEOs? Eh, probably not necessary and even a bad idea when you get past the early stage. Engineers should run engineering companies? Yes, absolutely. The CEO is not the only position that "runs" the company - there should at the very least be a CTO that has equal political clout in terms of long term decision making.

tablespoon 4y ago

> Yeah I generally agree with this take. Of course on HN and other technical sites the opinion "lol engineers should run companies" gets a lot of play, but plenty of engineers tank companies and don't get posted here with the alternative viewpoint. Honestly, it's probably not so much that engineers should run companies, but that MBA/finance-types shouldn't (mainly because it seems their conventional wisdom has collected a lot of toxic ideas).