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Why are so many successful founding CEOs software engineers?

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Re: Why are so many successful founding CEOs software engineers?

#111

Post by camhart »

533474 wrote: post #95
Number157 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Google/Alphabet's current CEO Current, sure, but he showed up after Google was already successful. Becoming the CEO of Google made him successful, but he didn't make Google successful. > Apple's current CEO... Same thing. > Jobs, the founding CEO, was also not a software engineer. True but he co-founded it with a software engineer (Wozniak) who was arguably influential enough that he had the influence of a CEO if n…

Wozniak was not a software engineer either; he was an EE

So you can only be a software engineer if you studied computer science? Not any other highly technical degree that's regularly hired into software engineering positions?

Re: Why are so many successful founding CEOs software engineers?

#113

Post by Macha »

533474 wrote: post #95
Number157 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Google/Alphabet's current CEO Current, sure, but he showed up after Google was already successful. Becoming the CEO of Google made him successful, but he didn't make Google successful. > Apple's current CEO... Same thing. > Jobs, the founding CEO, was also not a software engineer. True but he co-founded it with a software engineer (Wozniak) who was arguably influential enough that he had the influence of a CEO if n…

Wozniak was not a software engineer either; he was an EE

As were most software engineers in those days? It would be a while before CS and specific software software related fields of study took off

Re: Why are so many successful founding CEOs software engineers?

#114

Post by sradman »

GeneBond wrote: post #56
sebmellen wrote: post #5

Does anyone find this methodology lazy, if not disingenuous? - Google/Alphabet's current CEO is a materials engineer [0] - Apple's current CEO is an MBA with a degree in industrial engineering [1]. Jobs, the founding CEO, was also not a software engineer. - Amazon's CEO, Bezos, was a software engineer [2], but it's widely known that he didn't do programming work for Amazon. I don't think he would consider himself a "…

Hi, I'm the original author. The point of the article is as follows: there is clearly a trend towards top market-cap companies being founded by software engineering CEOs, but why? The data regarding the trend is pretty clear. I believe there are two reasons: 1. Software has become a global form of super infrastructure that facilitate scaling, but there's more going on. 2. I believe that guys like Zuckerberg, Bezos, M…

Software is eating the world but you are discounting the possibility that this force is simply drawing in the best and brightest; part sorting hat and part black hole pulling in the biggest stars.

Re: Why are so many successful founding CEOs software engineers?

#115

Post by blackrock »

ZephyrBlu wrote: post #18
anonytrary wrote: post #10

Intelligent people make the best CEOs. Software engineers are probably more intelligent, on average, than others. I think it might be better to look at IQ+EQ and see if there's a correlation there instead (although that data is probably not feasible to obtain).

Software Engineers are probably more intelligent than people from other engineering disciplines, or people in general? If other engineering disciplines, it seems a bit pretentious.

Engineering is bounded by the laws of physics.

Software Engineering is bounded by the laws of magic.

Engineering requires creativity to harness a material to perform useful work, within the material’s tolerances.

Software Engineering requires creativity to create worlds that have no existence in reality, other than in the imagination of the software engineer himself.

And in today’s world, software engineering is essential to make physical engineering a reality.

Re: Why are so many successful founding CEOs software engineers?

#117

Post by NotPavlovsDog »

etripe wrote: post #89
NotPavlovsDog wrote: post #78

Primarily because the companies listed succeeded in capitalizing on Software Eating the World (Thiel). Software companies grew the way they did because, for a while, there was little regulatory capture, with tech doing what tech wanted, at least with the unicorns. Thiel, PG have commented on this. There was a recent article on HN from O'Reilly - the new wave of breakthroughs anticipated, in biotech, might not have ro…

Just a small nitpick: what you probably mean is there was little regulation . Regulatory capture is what occurs after regulation has been established, is seen as a hindrance and companies start currying favour by greasing the wheels. In a word, captured regulatory agencies are beholden to the industry. See also: Ajit Pai in the FCC, SOPA, Boeing and the FAA...

I could have worded better, thanks.

Re: Why are so many successful founding CEOs software engineers?

#118

Post by nixass »

diegoperini wrote: post #99
infinity0 wrote: post #87

From the slew of negative nitpicky comments here, it seems that Hacker News has been taken over by MBA and not technical types. Yes the nerds you looked down on in high school are doing way better than you, no hard feelings. :) I agree with the article, but there's also a much simpler answer. To be successful in a world-changing sense, you have to actually care about making a good product. People get MBAs to make per…

> People get MBAs to make personal money, not to make world-changing products. I disagree. Any major in any field may or may not pursue making personal money, build wold-changing products or have nothing planned for their future. I think you are projecting your own anecdotal experience to the general case.

Not all MBAs are pursuing personal money, but when there's high visibility debacle (Intel, Boeing) there are always MBAs and accountant involved, not engineers. It's against engineer's logic to do moves/products like that.

Re: Why are so many successful founding CEOs software engineers?

#119

Post by tener »

dogma1138 wrote: post #50
replyifuagree wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coding really does teach something that I've never learned anyplace else. I've also done just about zero in the arts, so maybe there are some parallels there, I should try music or painting someday to see. I know for sure that math and engineering classes didn't teach me what coding taught me.

And what would that be exactly?

I'd argue that it forces you to think clearly about problems. You cannot write a program unless you understand exactly what you want it to do. In contrast typical CEO excels at creating tons of meaningless fluff. Perhaps mathematics or philosophy may have similar effects on people's ways of thinking?

Re: Why are so many successful founding CEOs software engineers?

#120

Post by ZephyrBlu »

fivecour wrote: post #81
GeneBond wrote: post #25

Hi, I'm the original author. It's late for me, but if you have questions or comment for me, I will get back to you in the morning. The article has to do with this idea: "Software engineers deeply understand that you iterate your way to value through hundreds of failed attempts.” I by no means think software engineers are smarter or more virtuous. What I do think is that the high rates of fail from writing code teache…

Why software engineers in particular then, if scientists, inventors, artists, and many others are also known for iterating through and learning from their failures? I also agree with others who said limiting analysis to the top 10 seems arbitrary, especially when you're covering mostly just the runaway outliers despite having the general overall claim of "why are software engineers better CEOs?" Does your analysis st…

I do feel like software is unique compared to most other fields due to the speed of iteration and possible impact.

You can hack some crazy stuff together really quickly and it's possible for it to have an outsized impact.

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