Comment by crinkly
1 day ago
I did consider doing a mathematics postgrad qualification but my IQ is high enough to realise I liked actually getting paid decent money.
1 day ago
I did consider doing a mathematics postgrad qualification but my IQ is high enough to realise I liked actually getting paid decent money.
Yes, exactly! One reason it's valuable to look at these numbers is because it makes you take a step back and say "Wait - I'm in what percentile?"
That naturally leads many people to ask whether making only $200,000 a year as a professor somewhere is really a price you're willing to pay, as opposed to making multiples of that as the smartest guy in the room in any number of private industries. Opportunity cost matters!
If you're making multiples of $200k for being a smart guy, there's a decent chance you're doing something that a lot of people would be ethically uncomfortable with (HFT, ads/surveillance tech, etc.). Being happy with what you do in the world also matters, and $200k/yr is easily enough to support a family on a single income pretty much anywhere already.
Bit more complicated here in the UK with salaries in academia. But in private sector I was earning 1.5x average mathematics professor salary before I even had a mathematics degree. And equity on top of that. Not the smartest guy in the room by far but the most useful.