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If you're really smart, enough to make disruptive scientific discoveries, why bother doing that when you could learn programming and work at a FAANG for $400k,

If you're really smart, enough to make disruptive scientific discoveries, why bother doing that when you could learn programming and work at a FAANG for $400k, or work in the finance sector and make possibly more? If you stay in science, you'll earn peanuts and not even have any career stability since the academic track is so bad these days.

urthor 4y ago
That's arguably an even greater point than anyone realises. All these geniuses... people are giving them jobs!
anonymouskimmer 4y ago
"why bother doing that when you could learn programming and work at a FAANG for $400k, or work in the finance sector and make possibly more?" Because it's boring and depressing. And one thing money can't buy, unless you're solely interested in accumulating money, is satisfaction with your life. Obviously not true for everyone, but we've got 8.8 million "scientists" (I'm not sure what they mean by the word). https://sciencebusiness.net/news/number-scientists-worldwide-reaches-88m-global-research-spending-grows-faster-economy https://sciencebusiness.net/news/number-scientists-worldwide... Most scientists don't work in academia. Some of those who do have stable jobs as staff instead of faculty positions. And this guy did it in his spare time while working at FAANG: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34236889 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34236889