gfr

good point, but what happens when you get stuck and can't think of something to work on that people care about? Obviously, a person who loves to learn won't take it as a moment to veg out, but may instead focus on problems that stretch the mind to generate some new ways to think about problems.

But there are lots of problems that stretch the mind. Perhaps you choose to spend your time learning about modern computer architectures. If this interests you, great. But from a startup perspective, it probably has a lower expected chance of spinning out a startup for you than say working on an information retrieval system.

But perhaps it is better worth your time just talking to people about their problems. I'm sure there are success stories on both sides of the spectrum.

I was a bit unclear, but what I mean is that can I live a life where I build things and get paid for it as opposed to spending time writing research papers and attending conferences, which I am under the impression requires getting a PhD to be taken seriously.

As far as where to work, anything from a startup to a large corporate company could potentially fit the bill.