[jiggawatts]

Some people do, but they're the minority, and you might not even notice them in the crowd.

I've seen well over a hundred organisations, small and large, in my careers as a consultant. They're all run by the 90% that have no idea what they're doing. They're chair warmers. Paper pushers. Project mismanagers.

Then there are the 10% that keep the lights on, put the fires out, have the brilliant ideas, and keep science and society progressing.

Generally they're under-appreciated and under-paid. Sometimes they're not noticed at all. That doesn't mean they don't exist!

Someone figured out all of the amazing things that you take for granted in your life. The x-ray lasers use to make your iPhone. The 5G protocol that lets it get gigabits while you're standing at a bus stop. The encoding that lets you stream your own personal "TV channel". The chemistry that made up the OLED panel that is bright enough to see in sunlight. On and on...

Companies... including startups... are like this. There are the 90% that just keep treading water, and then there's the 10% that push the boundaries.

[manmal]

I guess if everybody were pushing the envelope, things would get unstable quickly. Humanity survives on a lot of dumb grunt work.

[niko001]

I don't think that necessarily contradicts what the author is saying. Even you describe how these top 10% performers are often underpaid, so in some areas (getting noticed, managing office politics, switching companies to get pay rises) they seemingly "don't know what they're doing". A lot of people are brilliant in one particular area and at the same time fail basic life tasks, even though to someone from the outside it looks as if they've got everything figured out.