That is a choice. Not criticizing you for yours (and bonus points for honesty), but optimizing for money is not the only game in town. Plenty of software engineering work makes the world better while paying enough for a very comfortable life. Not FAANG levels, but good money. My 2c.
This. I've learned that I can't optimize for income, because typically it means I'll be doing work I dislike, or working for a company I dislike. For me, there is no amount of money that can balance that out. I'll prefer a position that pays a bit less but that I enjoy over one that pays excellently every time. To do otherwise ensures I'll have a miserable life.
Others can and do differ, of course. We all optimize for what's important to us.
Yes I agree. I don't make FAANG money but I live comfortably. I think what is important is optimising for a fair balance of happiness in life, which despite my negative outlook here is pretty damn high and taking home enough cash to enable you to do what you want to do before you drop dead.
I'd be more invested in something which improves the human condition but that's a 1 in 100,000 job. Perhaps I should have done biochemistry or something at university.
Hey, if it makes you feel better, a lot of biochemistry research ends up being completely meaningless fluff that is only published to inflate the author's reputation, but will likely have zero effect on the real world.
You can be cynical about anything if you want to :)
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I'd be more invested in something which improves the human condition but that's a 1 in 100,000 job.
I think the ratio is much larger.
But consider that market forces do work:
Since a lot of people want to do such a job, the salary will be quite low (i.e. so low that there won't be a long queue of people who want to do the job for such a low salary; the salary will just be high enough that the positions can be filled), thus these jobs will typically only be attractive to people really who want to put their money where their mouth is (i.e. their willingness to improve the human condition is so huge that they are willing to accept such low salaries).
On the other hand, the salaries of "bullshit jobs" or jobs where you do evil things will be much larger, because otherwise the company will have difficulties filling the positions.
