[boffinAudio]

I'm a 'technician' in a company full of 'scientists', and I can say without question, the scientists need help, the technicians need knowledge, and neither of the two realms can really survive without the other.

Sometimes you need the guy who has burned his fingers repairing things, over and over, to review your design - he's going to tell you why you are going to burn your fingers. Other times, the guy doing things in a semi-glib fashion, needs to be pulled off the production line and enlightened as to why things have to be done a certain way.

To consider this relationship hierarchical is to weaponise the subject - instead, these are key relationships. A single great scientist with 2 or 3 good technicians can build amazing products.

3 scientists with no technician, rarely ever do .. but there is of course the odd exception where a technician, by making something really great, becomes a scientist, too - and scientists, without technicians and therefore having to get their fingers toasty, often make amazing technicians. (This is why the hierarchical subjugation of the subject must be resisted.)