There are only three kinds of people in this world: builders, optimisers & storytellers.
These are the engineers of the world. Construction. Civil Engineers. Mechanical Engineers. Software engineers. Aerospace engineers. Building is fundamentally what drives humanity forward. The richest and most impactful people have throughout history built or controlled the materials/assets which lead to the building. Fundamentally, all of society's progress is contingent on builders. You don't have optimisers without builders. If there is no builder, there is no plumber.
It's ironic because optimisers are often prized more than builders. They are paid more because it's easier to take something 10 → 15 than it is to take something 0 → 1 by a long way. Therefore, a lot of builders get stuck at 0 and get compensated as such. It means if you're conscious about it, it's a real choice. Do you try to build something net new? Even if it's a small little product? Even if it's a small piece of software that helps a few people.
In agricultural revolution, someone built farming systems, tools like hoes (tech at the time). In the Industrial Revolution, someone built the steam engine, textile machines, factories (builder). Then people built computers, the internet, transistors, programming languages.
These people take an existing piece of technology and optimise it. These are some of the most-esteemed jobs: lawyers, bankers, consultants and doctors. They're seen as the system to make the builders more efficient. You also have managers here of any Hormozi-business (generally service-based business). Because there is already something there to optimise, they typically make good money. But this field is highly competitive, and in many ways quite commoditised until the top. It does still push society forward. Competition means that typically weaker optimisers are not valued meaning that more of society uses better optimisers, leading to more optimal society.
For example, if you have 10 teeth whitening chain in a suburb. Most of them are bad. Then you add a really good teeth whitening chain. It run good ads, have clean building, friendly & cute receptionist, actually makes your teeth white, does it quickly, is relatively well priced, educates you on the benefits of doing so and makes broader recommendations for your health & wellness, follows-up for free to make sure the treatment went well. You will go back there. You will tell your friends. They will tell their friends. Other local brick and mortars will lose business. This teeth whitening chain could buy others ones with free cash-flow or just wipe them out. Then, everyone in the town will get to go to the good teeth whitening chain. This is typically how competition drives better outcomes.
However, it's still incremental.
These are the people by the fire who tell the stories. They shape how people think. This is critical; more than builders like to admit. Because, how people think influences human behaviour which is upstream of everything in society. Modern people think influencers are a "new-role". They are not really. Storytellers are just competing to tell their story to a fixed supply of attention. Wherever the attention goes is where storytellers appear. TV, Social Media, Magazines or by the fire. Sports-players are paid well because they enable story-telling.
Essentially, all careers and way people live go to one of those three.
Typically, optimisers & storytellers can get there by brute-force.
It's hard for true builders & technologists to get there by brute-force. You have to be risk-taking, high-iq.