You&#x27;re exactly right. And it comes down to simple economic truths. If mass amounts of people could &quot;easily&quot; make 130k out of college on a path to 250k then the hundreds of thousands of programmers around the world would give up their ~$100k jobs and go do that. But they don&#x27;t. Just look at glassdoor salary averages! It&#x27;s right there in black and white! The sunny salary numbers he posits are, as you said, out of reach for most.<p>(It should be noted that I completely agree with the article&#x27;s conclusion. I&#x27;ve come to feel that the EV of buying a startup lottery ticket is <i>woefully</i> lower than pg, sama or [insert vc&#x2F;angel here] assert. If you can land a solid and interesting bigco job, that&#x27;s probably your best bet.)