It's worth stressing your point on perceived limitations of financial upside. I work for what is effectively a fintech business within a large financial firm an

It's worth stressing your point on perceived limitations of financial upside. I work for what is effectively a fintech business within a large financial firm and this is a constant hindrance to innovation because investment tends toward short term gains. I think it really comes down to how low the bar is set for software used by financial institutions with respect to originality and pushing boundaries. There's simply not much pressure to do extraordinary things because clients are accustomed to such laborious, outdated systems and processes. I hear a lot of fluffy talk about leveraging modern technologies and being pioneers but when it comes to building out teams and buying into exciting projects, leadership can't seem to find their wallets unless a client has specifically asked for something. You mentioned that your colleagues are working on things that break this mold - I won't try to speak for their companies, but in my experience those sorts of experimental projects (e.g. distributed ledger tech) tend to be wildly underfunded and consequently don't deliver much beyond an overblown, hype-building press release.