Jules good topic.
The comments reinforce the point that in order to be a successful engineer your people skills have to be even better than your engineering talent.
You can have all the technical knowledge in the world but if you can't translate that into the real world its not worth any thing.
It is not always possible but this is why I try to pick projects that I want to work on. I find a lot of people in a lot of businesses don't understand what business they are REALLY in.
IMHO we are not in the recording business, we are in the "Dream Business". People come to us to help bring their dreams a little closer. Young musicians/artist are passionate people and work for peanuts in the worst possible conditions in order to make these dreams come true.
I try my very best to keep this in mind when working with musicians. It is easy for me to get caught up in the latest gizmos but it always comes back to tapping into my clients vision and doing the best I can to translate that into little platters of plastic.
Lee