Originally Posted by HowlerKarma
I also disagree that the world doesn't need "average" scientists.

It most emphatically DOES need them. Not everyone can be a superstar, but those superstars need a lot of able hands and collaborators willing to share the limelight with them. Where do those people come from, hmm? People who win Nobel Prizes and multi-million dollar grants aren't doing it by sitting alone in their offices and thinking really hard.
At Harvard there were two students in our department who we identified as superior. One was a girl who later won a MacArthur "genius" grant. She did not join study groups I was a part of, because she was out of our league. Discussing things with us would slow her down. (She was earnest and modest and would never say that, but she rationally chose to work alone.) I think there is a hierarchy in science, and mediocre PhDs like me could best assist the stars by taking a larger teaching load and thus freeing their time. I realized what my status in academia would be and left for greener pastures. In business there is considerable demand for moderately gifted people.