Brain drain in tech's future?

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no one can orchestrate innovation

This post is a good summary of what has ALWAYS been the case with engineers and other technology workers. It goes back 50 years or more at this point, well before the computer/internet boom of the last decade. And I see no real evidence that anything is changing for the better for those involved with technical careers.

Instead I see people taking college courses in crap like "research management" -- as if you could put the technical creative process on a nice neat timetable that meshes with the corporate need for progress reports and quarterly profit statements. Pure bunk!

The fact is that REAL research cannot be called upon to produce a desired result (or any result) in any preordained fashion. That's why most technical jobs involve a continual reshuffling and tweaking of what is already known and established. The people in charge (MBAs) would simply be devastated and overwhelmed if a true breakthrough were to occur on their watch.

It is also true that you cannot predict WHO will come up with the great idea or insight that moves things to the next level. Management might hope it is the anointed PHD who has published in all the right journals. But such people DO NOT have a lock on the creative process, and their academnic training may well have squeezed from them the last spark of originality and intuition necessary to see beyond mere career survival.

Finally, there is not and never has been a "shortage" of PHDs, engineers, technicians, wire benders, disco dancers, or anyone else you can name who works for a living at the behest of others in a free market system. The only shortage is of opportunities that make it worthhile to amass personal debt and forego work for 5-10 years while earning an advanced degree. Supply and demand, anyone?

Posted by: dmennie   Posted on: 08/09/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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