So I'm 20 and I've started looking at the salaries of jobs/careers, and this is the impression I've gotten. Like that you could spend years cramming a ton of knowledge about a very niche field, and still only get 2-3x what a run-of-the-mill job makes. Is this true? If yes then I guess this route to wealth would only make sense (due to the diminishing returns) if the topic truly spoke to you, right? Are there alternative career paths to good pay than being really good at something really specific?
Hey thanks. When I talk to people who are older now, they might have had a few careers, but it doesn't generally sound like it was lucrative for them, so much as just necessary. The highest-earning ones became a doctor or an oil company paper-pusher and stuck with it for decades. The thing is, maybe it's different now, and that's just because they came up in the 80's - said teachers basically sold constant adaptability as the best 21st century career skill.
I'm not as old as you, but I've had to make a major change of direction once, and I'm basically still in the hole from it. You definitely leave a lot of connections and training and possibilities behind when you do that. I don't know, maybe you're considering something that's adjacent to what you were already doing and won't be starting from scratch.