Comment by ramesh31

>Why not join a book club, or find some other outlet which serves your intellectual curiosity?

It's the stakes. Sure it was fun and intellectually satisfying, but ultimately it meant something because there was a prestige that came with cultivating a skill that brought the ultimate external validation: abnormally high pay and prestige. It was the blending of those two things that made it so special. Not a soulless pursuit of money, but also not a naive pursuit of something for passion alone. You could spend your days diving deep into something fascinating, and it was highly lucrative to do so. Now it seems we're left to choose one or the other.