> "My intuition is still that a much higher fraction of billionaires are business/management types"
It's both. Nobody becomes a billionaire doing engineering all day, but a great many become billionaires by doing business with an engineering background.
If you look at the major industrialists of our era (and before), many of them come from technical backgrounds, and have done their time in the trenches. When Ford hired the first all-management CEO (i.e., did not rise through the ranks in the auto industry) it was a Big Deal.
It's both. Nobody becomes a billionaire doing engineering all day, but a great many become billionaires by doing business with an engineering background.
If you look at the major industrialists of our era (and before), many of them come from technical backgrounds, and have done their time in the trenches. When Ford hired the first all-management CEO (i.e., did not rise through the ranks in the auto industry) it was a Big Deal.