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Comment by nojito | Hacker News Reader

Just because you're a good engineer doesn't immediately make you a good executive.

When C-level people in an aircraft company start to lack engineering background en masse, we see what happens :( Boeing was once great.

Steve Jobs had a great explanation for this phenomena. Companies with monopoly power do not require or benefit from product development in any form on most reasonable investment horizons. In practice they can only benefit from increasing their market via marketing, or increasing profits by financial engineering. Eventually the promotion process of the company will leave you with Sales, Marketing, and Finance folks running the show.

Do you have a source for this? I’d love to read more about it.

This is the clip, but the whole interview is worth watching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4VBqTViEx4

No, but in an industry as technical as semiconductors, I'd like to see the evidence that default-hire-MBA is ever better than default-hire-PhD.

AMD and TSMC both have always had technical leaders. Intel had a series of legendary technical CEOs during their most formidable years.

The first non-technical-PhD CEO they had was Otellini, but he had been there for 30 years before becoming CEO.

Of course not, but if none of your execs have any engineering chops then you're setting up for a world of pain.

There will only be a discussion if you define what "good" means first.

AMD is what happens when you have someone who is both.

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