I don't think this invalidates your argument, but your assumptions about my work choices are completely wrong. I have almost always been the youngest person at

I don't think this invalidates your argument, but your assumptions about my work choices are completely wrong. I have almost always been the youngest person at offices dominated by scientists and mathematicians. Most of my work before graduation was at a national lab in condensed matter physics. I joined my current job as the 7th hire because the team is mostly comprised of math and EE PhD's from MIT and Berkeley. I'm not working on creating "forms" that "scale". Its all data science and optimization models/machine learning and the related engineering. At the end of the day though, the business isn't about how much you are learning and any early stage start up is going to conduct R&D based on short term returns. If I could work somewhere like Voleon, I might have greater freedom, but I don't have an advanced degree to get a foot in the door. I agree about traveling. That is one of the only things that continues to excite me. I spent several months working remotely and plan to continue doing so once this company starts to get revenue (if ever). That's certainly one freedom working from a computer provides that most other occupations don't get to enjoy. That being said, at the end of the day, its just work. And thats fine. Thats still better than most jobs. But this line of work has a relatively low ceiling (in terms of job satisfaction, not compensation) if you want more and I feel like sticking too it makes it only easier to accept that ceiling. Maybe this is too strong, but it almost feels like giving up and settling for something easy/cushy.