My reply to this is that the potentially outsized rewards gives Carmack de facto leadership of his next project, because he’s the one paying the bills, and it l

My reply to this is that the potentially outsized rewards gives Carmack de facto leadership of his next project, because he’s the one paying the bills, and it lets him work on whatever he wants, in perpetuity, without ever having to consider money again. In a system where that’s not the case, then maybe his superior skills are enough to secure a leadership spot, or maybe not, because maybe he hasn’t invested enough in developing his political skills. This is generally a failing of engineers versus business people. Many of the engineer-led companies you see these days are because they were founders.