Comment by hiAndrewQuinn

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!