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Comment by rsanek | Hacker News Reader

>Once tech [...] started being a source of wealth and power

this happened "in the early 2010s"? I don't think so. Software engineers have no power, and in comparison to finance, quite limited wealth.

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Despite where they are now, the FAANG founders could sling some amount of code back in the day.

I have no doubt they would fail their current interview cycle for engineers if they tried it under a pseudonym, they were considered software engineers when they started their companies and that cohort is now in charge of a double digit percentage of the planets wealth.

If you think software engineers have no power and limited wealth compared to finance then I can only imagine you are not a software engineer are are downplaying the amount of power the class has absorbed, or we fundamentally disagree on what a software engineer is

> software engineers have no power

Like that fellow who runs a car company now

I don't think he's any good at programming

Out of 10 richest people of the world, 8 have background in software engineering. Musk, Zuck, Bezos, Ellison, Gates, Page, Brin, Ballmer. Only Buffet and Arnault are exceptions.

Ballmer has a background in working for a software company. Did he ever actually work in software as such?

Pretty sure he was explicitly brought on by Gates and Allen because he was a non-technical MBA type, and Microsoft had grown to the point where they needed one of those.

Sort of tracks with the Welchian bullshit he seems to have supported as CEO.

They are not richest people though, they are biggest public shareholders. Real wealth is always well-hidden.

The idea that these centibillionaires do not have "real wealth" is beyond absurd

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