@noname223 there are people that have existed, mathematical geniuses that saw numbers in terms of colors and were able to do extremely complex calculations off the top of their head that would take the rest of us a calculator to do. But thats only because they perceived it differently.
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I think I've said this on here before but, I am highly skeptical that aerospace companies have fundamental physics knowledge not shared with the academic world. There certainly is, however, materials science/knowledge which involves topological physics.
For practical applications, the story is very different! The boundary between these is things like high-temperature cuprate superconductors, which IBM had for a short while (probably while filing patents) before releasing it to the academic world.
Because the government is so leaky, they outsource to private industry to guard secret facilities with secret projects — SunkWorks (Lockheed Martin).
I was very fortunate and got to meet Steve Justice, he was director of advanced programs at the Skunk Works and the Skunk Works are who built the famous secret bases you hear about, the U-2 spy plane, the SR-71 Blackbird, the F-117 stealth fighter and all that kind of stuff. He literally was in charge of all the advanced programs
I mean, we'll say someone is a talented engineer for example, since that title seems to carry a level of prestige.
Finance and Insurance are big on engineers because of their math heavy background (and ability to problem solve and apply mathematical/statistical principles).
Just as many Mathematicians, Statisticians, and CompSci/Programmers (heavy Data Mining, HFT, and AI) go into Finance and Insurance as well. They don't all just become high school math teachers. Actuarial science is a big field for that kind of math background.
There are quant traders or quantitative traders, which I've talked about my experiences on here before. These are guys with rocket scientist IQ's who decided to make money instead of withering away in academia. Basically these guys work for banks or hedge funds and they build complex algorithms to arbitrage tiny price discrepancies.
But I've said before on this site, I think a lot of us became (formally) engineers because we like to create and add value to the world. Manipulating abstract or subtle market movements may seem very unfulfilling, even disruptive to some. But then again there are those among us that design and build nuclear weapons.
I wish I could say the CIA but it's definitely a lot of bureaucratic desk jockey jerk offs. That said, the alphabet soup intelligence agencies do heavily recruit from the ivy league universities. -wink, wink, nudge, nudge, my German friend-
There is a perceived buffoonery thats attached to some level of government because there's a lot of people in government that are fucking idiots. Like there's a lot of people that work at UPS and DMV that are fing idiots. But if you get to the highest levels of the organization, they know what they're doing. I mean if you're gonna ascend to the highest levels of the CIA or the NSA you're gonna probably be brilliant. What are the odds that you're not? You're gonna have a deep understanding of whats going on of foreign policy and how to manipulate things and intelligence.
What took people years to research for a PhD paper can now be researched in days or weeks, if that.
I thought
would appreciate this. My friend introduced me to his cousin who has dual PhD's in mathematical statistics and for his thesis he rewrote all the math books for all the grades of the public schools in CA. So he makes bank working for the government in CA writing math books. His wife has a PhD in chemical mathematics so she does all the pharmacy chemical stats for a big pharmaceutical company. But do you know what he did as a job through his PhD and masters studies? He was a dishwasher and he absolutely loved it because he could just be in his own head and put on headphones. But would you have judged him at that time based solely on his occupation?
I know someone who sold his company for $2 billion but never went to school. Is that dumb luck?
A PhD in bullshit - the liberal arts education was designed for aristocrats to have something to talk about at parties and to help rule the vast the majority of people. Today, unless you're pursuing academia, that advanced degree is not the best use of your time. At least back in the day wealthy people's kids would study liberal arts (knowledge for the sake of knowledge) for it was aristocratic to separate yourself from the common man. Largely legacy students. Then since you didn't have to work you'd sit around all day with your wealthy friends discussing history and politics and philosophy. Even now sometimes its just about having the piece of paper on your wall. Its a signal. Its also largely about networking. If you went there they don't care what you studied. It shows your smart and connected. I read a study than even today wealthy children tend to study liberal arts whereas other choice engineering, math, science, business, ect.
Then again, my friend's cousins made hundreds of millions on Wall Street using advanced water propulsion breakthrough for trading long ago and they were English and history majors.
I mean, what sort of intelligence are you referring to?
Different intelligences, like mental. You have physical, like Tiger Woods is an amazing golfer. You have emotional intelligence, they call it EQ. And then you also have spiritual intelligence. And the difference between mental and spiritual is mental is two and spiritual is one. Someone can be a genius musically like with the piano or a composer, etc. artistic genius like cinema or painting.
All coins have three sides. There's no such thing as a one sided coin. So when somebody takes sides they're ignorant because they don't see the other side. There's heads, tails and the edge. Intelligence occurs when you stand on the edge.
Hmm… maybe the answer you want is the most high-level esoteric subject/group? Many branches of physics I can tell you from university research - things like M Theory and QFT and when you start getting to these sorts of areas the mathematics become just so high-level that very few people can actually conduct research and I've mentioned this on here before and I always get pushback on the multiverse hypothesis but we're straying from the point here…
Maybe you want a polymath? The phrase "the last man to know everything" is most commonly associated with Thomas Young (1773–1829), a British polymath. There was just less stuff to know back then. Today the market rewards you for being a specialist and given the increasing complexity, you almost need to be.
… but I have a story growing up and feeling stupid around my mentors… 
