Quote from ProfLogic:
IMHO
Quants are usually too busy trying to improve on what currently doesn't work or marginally works to think outside the box.
Programmers are great at logic and thinking outside the box but usually can't put the two pieces of trading and logic together.
Engineers for the most part just can't leave well enough alone and are always tinkering even with what already works. They see the parts of the box but can't put them together.
Traders traditionally don't have the patience needed to see a system, method or what will come out of the box through to the end.
Then as the next poster put it . . . trust. If you could get "the best" quants, programmers, engineers and traders in a room, if they didn't kill each other, one would steal from the rest.
I contemplated the exact same question over 16 years ago. I became the trader, the quant and the engineer. Once I solved the problem, which was the single hardest thing I ever accomplished, I found the best and most honest programmer I could that wanted to share the information with me and learn to program it.
Good luck on your journey.