Yeah I think that's the crux of the age-ism too. Anything that's going to lead anywhere in the same solar system as consciousness uploading is going to be a wee

Yeah I think that's the crux of the age-ism too. Anything that's going to lead anywhere in the same solar system as consciousness uploading is going to be a wee bit harder than serving ads at volume from the cloud. The lack of a large enough market for skills at that level speaks of the lack of problems that hard being tackled. You're right about SV being underpaid, too. Those salaries look big until you factor in the cost of living and the number of hours you work. Hint: If you make $120,000/year and work 60 hours a week, you actually make about $80,000/year when compared to someone who works 40 hours a week and makes $80,000/year. Now plug that into your cost of living calculator in a city with $3000/month for entry level rent. Now you make the same as someone who makes $50,000/year in Austin, Texas. Six figure recent college grads in SF/SV are cheap labor. Oh, and I wonder who owns all that real estate? It couldn't be the same people who own a lot of the VC funds and large shares of the tech companies could it? Think about the journey the money is taking from the point it reaches your pocket. If that's true, it ends up right back where it started in short order minus taxes. Bottom line: You are a business selling your labor. Your net profit per hour worked is what you make, not your gross income. If you live check to check, you make nothing. Edit: The only minor wrinkle here is debt. If you have a lot of debt, then making the numbers bigger works to your advantage provided you use those bigger numbers to reduce your debt in nominal terms. Example: paying 10% of a 100k income against your debt will pay it off exponentially faster than paying 10% of a 60k income. This is why politicians love inflation. So if you have a 200k student loan maybe you should chase big numbers in nominal terms until that's gone.