If you take the straight path of BS at 22, PhD at 27, and then add some post-doc(s), you're basically in your 30s before you earn the same as a 21 year old comp

If you take the straight path of BS at 22, PhD at 27, and then add some post-doc(s), you're basically in your 30s before you earn the same as a 21 year old computer science intern. Add in any life event (taking a job for a few years after your BS, having a family, etc), that could push you into your mid-30s before you get your tenure track job. Then you're taking a huge gamble that you are going to win the tenure track prize. Most people don't win that prize. Even if you do good work, there's plenty of stories (even on HN) of an academics career getting wrecked by one influential person. >Plus, I imagine the work is good for an aging mind. Yes, if you're lucky enough to sustain a research program into your 60s/70s. IME a lot of professors can't do that as younger researchers overtake them. So then your option is to take on more administrative duties, which is a lot of petty politics. Or you can just check out and ride your tenured status until retirement, which some people do - good for them, not so much for the students in their program. As you walk that path, you've got to have a lot of faith in the future as you are constantly presented with examples of where the path you are walking on is likely to fail. I was there once and I took the hint early and left academia.