Yes, but Bell Labs is not a role model. (Many managers were a hassle there too ) There can't be more the than 5% of the industry doing what Bell Labs did or MSR

Yes, but Bell Labs is not a role model. (Many managers were a hassle there too ) There can't be more the than 5% of the industry doing what Bell Labs did or MSR does. So the interesting question for the 95% is, what makes the best of the rest, doing boring but profitable work, better than the rest of the rest? Even at Google, a very desirable corporate job, many engineers aren't really inventing the future.