I'm a 'technician' in a company full of 'scientists', and I can say without question, the scientists need help, the technicians need knowledge, and neither of the two realms can really survive without the other.<p>Sometimes you need the guy who has burned his fingers repairing things, over and over, to review your design - he's going to tell you why you are going to burn your fingers. Other times, the guy doing things in a semi-glib fashion, needs to be pulled off the production line and enlightened as to why things have to be done a certain way.<p>To consider this relationship hierarchical is to weaponise the subject - instead, these are key relationships. A single great scientist with 2 or 3 good technicians can build amazing products.<p>3 scientists with no technician, rarely ever do .. but there is of course the odd exception where a technician, by making something really great, becomes a scientist, too - and scientists, without technicians and therefore having to get their fingers toasty, often make amazing technicians. (This is why the hierarchical subjugation of the subject must be resisted.)