[mikorym]

I am sorry to sound like I am being obstinate, but my opinion about this is that as a society, since the early 90s, we have put way to much focus on "tech" than we have put on plain old mathematics or foundational science.

I don't mean manufacturing (which is doing really well), but companies like Microsoft, Google, Facebook (and even Apple) and others do encourage you to try to compete against their founders (or maybe society does that) rather than focusing on being solid mathematically. Yes, Google pays people well with those skills, but movies portray mostly their founders, emphasising how rich they are, while mathematicians are generally portrayed as weird. Society as a whole puts more emphasis on Bill Gates than on fundamental researchers.

In fact, if you really want to have a rich representative, you can pick the Simons guy. (See, I don't even know his name.) His Medallion hedge fund was built on mathematics. Ironically, Bill Gates is these days one of the biggest financial supporters of people with science skills that he doesn't have.

It is a fad to be a techie. Mathematics is not a fad, although it does have internal fads.