http://michaelochurch.wordpress.com/2013/01/01/fourth-quadra...
I think a lot of the guys that go into super science aren't really looking for huge pay checks anyway. They love the science and the challenge, and they don't want to be burdened with all the BS that comes with dealing with "regular people" because we will get in their way.
It ain't greener on the other side of the fence. Most software engineers work on pointless shit (and complain about idiotic or short-sighted management) as well.
The problem isn't that these product executives and bikeshedding non-techs have low IQs. (We viciously lambast them as "retards" and "morons", but it ain't true. If they were physically limited we'd be dickheads for judging them. It's the willful stupidity that's the sin.) They're more than smart enough. The problem is that they (and half or more of all developers, to tell the truth) are willingly intellectually half-assed. Once they get power it's an excuse not to think. They do become genuinely stupid (in the low IQ sense) over time but that atrophy takes decades.
In other words, it's not that "regular" people are the idiots who make our lives hell. It's something to do with power structures and the anti-intellectualism those seem to breed, even when filled with smart people.