[vrinsd]

Your example about Bjarne says it all -- it was financially more in his interest to leave academia / standards comittee / "hardcore work" for something more financially lucarative.

There's maybe another bigger point here that a lot of "great tools" or "good ideas turned into reality" happened either because the person/people working on it were so motivated and/or they were in the right environment that supported this type of creativity.

Sadly, most hardware-oriented organizations are the exact opposite of creativity or "great ideas" because if they fail the physical cost to fix something is staggering.

In software you can try something, if it doesn't work, call it a learning experience, re-factor, potentially re-use and have another go at it.

In hardware if you do that few people will high five you for a valiant effort.

Historically academia was a place that could "birth" new ideas, help explore them with a pure intent to see how it worked out. These days I think people are dying to finish with school and not live a pauper's life.