Physics PhD student here. Yeah, we're all playing the lottery for the dream of a life studying the universe.
It's the exact analogue of how serious student athletes throw away their whole undergrad education for a shot at a pro career, usually to end up injured and useless a couple years later.
I don't know about that. If you fall short of your aspirations at the PhD or postgrad level, there's always quantitative finance or any number of other lucrative careers where your background will at least get you in the door for an interview.
Except, for so many of us who have studied hard science, the idea of a career in quantitative finance is the exact analog of the purebred racehorse who breaks his leg on the track and gets taken out back for an acute brain-scrambling.
As the example originating this subthread shows, quantitative finance isn't even close to the only option for a lucrative career available to those educated in the hard sciences.
It's the exact analogue of how serious student athletes throw away their whole undergrad education for a shot at a pro career, usually to end up injured and useless a couple years later.