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I know which inventions I'd rather have.

The only principle they follow is: "if you throw a shitton of money at any given problem, you can corner a market!"

It's important to learn the history of Jack Welch at GE. His choices echo through most modern society at the moment.

Can you say more about this? Why Welch specifically, vs other important execs over time?

I can’t say I know the truth, but the sentiment is that Welch divested from R&D, focused on “financialization” I.e. investing in financial instruments over adding real value, made big short term gains, and doomed the future of the company.

GE used to be an R&D heavy company that paid it's employee's well. Welch, proved and popularized the trend of firing large business areas and hollowing out R&D to pump up the quarterly stock price. This was a sugar hit of profitability at the expense of the future.