Indeed. There are not too many people that are both bright and willing to look up to the current crop of tech billionaires. Ideals count, certainly for hackers

Indeed. There are not too many people that are both bright and willing to look up to the current crop of tech billionaires. Ideals count, certainly for hackers. If you have billions in the bank you might start to look to work on some real pressing problems instead of looking to get a share of the next Privacy Suck. Erosion of democratic societies via algorithmically boosted disinformation campaigns, climate change, healthcare, you name it. Tech is not neutral in the societal sense, far from it. Also, I doubt if AI (now even more widgets), with those tech leaders pressing for it, is compatible with being a tech enthusiast. Techies like tech first, results second. If software engineering becomes chess, it will be preserved as tournaments, not business.