[nunez]

In my experience, many software engineers and (I hate this word, but it fits here) technologists have the technical and cognitive skills to become executives but lack the social skills. Social skills are extremely important in that role. People are hard.

Also: Software engineers in the US are well-paid and, on the average, have pretty good work-life balance. That goes away when you become an exec.

[daniel-tlt21]

Software engineers have the technical and cognitive skills to become executives but lack the social skills --> only because they didn't have to learn them, but they definitely can learn them

Software engineers are well-paid and have pretty good work-life balance --> True. One of my friends moved to Silicon Valley to start a company. He's now at Google with a $300K salary and has no incentives to start a business. I do believe though that busyness is a bug, not a feature, of executives' workday