Both have a talent for math and science. The difference is that scientists genuinely love the work, and that's all they want to do. If they're mediocre at it, they either go into teaching, or go into some other line of work altogether. Some of them, like me, eventually wind up working as engineers! I never had the talent or creativity to earn my living in the arts.

Engineers, on the other hand, very often don't particularly care for science/math. And regardless of how good they are at it, can't wait until they get out of the lab and into management. In fact, being so good at their work that they keep on getting raises but never get promoted out of the shop is considered a form of failure; a lack of ambition.

Then again, maybe we're overthinking the part about liberals and conservatives. Maybe it is psychological after all. Most liberals are guys who just aren't very good at business, temperamentally unsuited for it, not highly motivated to do it, or simply too lazy to learn it, so they compensate by affecting a disdain and contempt for the commercial world, its ethos and the people in it.

Conservatives, on the other hand, are narcissistic enough to fancy they are natural-born business geniuses, tycoons and entrepreneurs with all the intellectual and moral virtues they feel are essential for success in that field. If it turns out they really aren't very good at it, they are paranoid enough to have a ready-made list of excuses and scapegoats to blame their failures on: the government, the media, the immigrants, academia, the poor, the minorities and, of course, the "liberal elites". Those "elites" are, by the way, liberals who are better at business than the conservative wannabees are. They really hate those guys.

You need proof? Have you ever heard a conservative failure complain that he was just outmaneuvered by a competitor. Its always the libs and their allies who are to blame. The libs and their lackeys are lazy and incompetent and lack all creativity and ambition, but somehow, always manage to pull a fast one on the conservatives, treacherously stab them in the back, and steal what they are entitled to by genetic birthright: der ewige liberal.

As always, it comes down to narcissism and paranoia.