&gt; <i>I am glad I work in a meritocracy-based industry where anyone with any background can &quot;ship&quot; and succeed, and that has a low tolerance for bullshit.</i><p>Having worked in research academia, as a hospital medical tech, as a technical support bloke, and now several years across several different companies doing devops, I call hogwash. The software&#x2F;startup world is replete with bullshit, more than anywhere else. Not to mention the huge amounts of time spent &quot;chasing the shiny&quot;, where new tools are used because of fashion rather than merit. And network effects are just as strong in the startup world as in academia or medicine.<p>Occasionally a bedroom-based programmer can strike it lucky, but that&#x27;s not the bulk of the startup world.<p>&gt; <i>Don&#x27;t the laws of nature exist everywhere? Why can&#x27;t anyone &quot;do science,&quot; then?</i><p>Everyone <i>can</i> &#x27;do science&#x27;. Youtube is filled with people doing science with everyday items. It&#x27;s just that most human-scale stuff is low-hanging fruit and has now been &#x27;done&#x27;. The edges of science where we&#x27;re progressing with <i>new</i> knowledge need more expensive tools to observe them.