PS?

What the heck do you consider “real brains?”

An allusion to the Conservative's concept of effete liberal intellectuals who dare question the motives and methods of real movers and shakers in the business world.

Who do you define as an “intellectual?”

Again, a sarcastic reference to intellectuals as academic dilettantes who, to use George Wallace's description, "can't park their bicycle straight when they get to the campus."

Is Steve Jobs not an “intellectual?”

I was referring to the pejorative use of the term by conservatives: as individuals who have only academic credentials, but nothing else. Nothing useful. Like running a business.

In what universe? What do you consider “academia?”

Again, academia is a university environment allegedly infested with ideas hostile to commercial interests and philosophies.

Is engineering school “academia?”

That's a matter of definition and custom. Unlike in the USA, in Europe, it is not. Engineers study in polytechnic institutes, artists study in art schools, businessmen in commercial academies, public administrators in their own schools. Those fields are not considered as the traditional liberal arts of the medieval scholastic idea. Personally, I do believe engineers should be included in the University. Business majors, no.

Is it necessary to produce ideas that nobody else on the planet needs or wants to be a real “academic?”

Snark, Snark. Now that's not a real question. But it does answer some of the ones above, by alluding to university scholars as worthless drones. Which is, after all, what I think was the subtext of that article.

What “street cred” does an entrepreneur need?

To actually own and operate a successful business. For an academic, it means a PhD, and possibly, research, publications, teaching, tenure.

Now you see why I don't answer rhetorical questions? By the time I'm finished I've forgotten what the original post was about.