3 ms·
Maybe someone can explain this to me... how is this different than saying that professional athletes are one of the highest paying jobs in the world ? There are
by j7ake 9y ago
Maybe someone can explain this to me... how is this different than saying that professional athletes are one of the highest paying jobs in the world ? There are a lot of hedge fund traders that blow up and are no longer part of the statistics of these senior guys who are taking in $10 million.
- rdmsr 9y agoProbably because the perceived skill difference between this and many other modern jobs is small. I can imagine people being incredulous that this is skill rather than something less deserved (luck/situation/...). The skill difference between your average SWE (or even average college basketball player) and an NBA player is pretty massive (and quite visible). I'd imagine it's much harder to find an someone that says 'yeah that's easy I could do that' about an NBA career...
- BenjaminTodd 9y agoOur estimate of the mean is still 400-900k, whereas the mean in sports/arts/entertainment is only about $70k. https://80000hours.org/articles/highest-paying-jobs/ https://80000hours.org/articles/highest-paying-jobs/ Even the junior roles in trading are higher paid than this. You're right that you also need to account for the chance of dropping out of the role all together, which is hard. (Though drop out rates are high in both sports and finance.)
- samscully 9y agoThere is very little demand for professional athletes so training to a very high level in mathematics or finance is a much less risky proposition.