The reason very few are truly innovating on a global level is because nobody wants to put in the decades studying to become an expert in any one field -- and I

The reason very few are truly innovating on a global level is because nobody wants to put in the decades studying to become an expert in any one field -- and I don't blame them. I've been seesawing between two life decisions lately: 1) Do I continue with medicine, become super-specialized and then look for a way to use my expertise to bring innovation to the world and become wealthy, or 2) Do I use whatever knowledge I've acquired now, play my hand at creating something that'll most likely not be deemed innovative and try to get wealthy that way? There are good arguments to be made on both sides. On the one hand I'd love to create something truly groundbreaking, but on the other, I don't want to toil away my life for decades and finally reach success with only a few decades of my life to live. Who says I need to innovate in the first place? I've only got 80 years here to live, why not make as much money as I can, as quickly as possible, and live my life to its absolute fullest. Of course, these arguments are based on the assumption that your goal is to become wealthy and to innovate. It's a time issue for me. I don't for one second look down on people working on the next hot social app because there's a chance they may cash out far earlier than had they labored away in a lab studying the subjects that'll really push humans forward. In the end, there's no great metric by which our accomplishments wil be judged. If you wanna spend your hours on a new email app, fine, and if you wanna spend your years studying photosynthetic biochemical photomicroscopy, then go for it. There's no right or wrong.