A "fulfilling" professional life is rather hard to define but the economist article seems to take the very narrow view that "fulfilling" means to maximize the R

A "fulfilling" professional life is rather hard to define but the economist article seems to take the very narrow view that "fulfilling" means to maximize the ROI for time/money spent in education by optimizing one's selection of major. The fact is people do just fine majoring in things such as studio arts and literature. It could very well mean that they don't end up working professionally in those fields, but that is OK. Some of these people end up working in the same companies as their peers, some end up in menial jobs after college, some become your boss (and some do all or none of these). And I am not even mentioning the fact that at age 18, many many students have yet to find themselves and settle on a major, let alone a career path.