I think it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that we deserve the insane wages of tech because we earn them. I have a friend who is a school principal and what she does is easily as complex, ambiguos and impactful as what I do, for a fraction of my salary. Maybe what she lacks in income is made up for in the satisfaction of contributing to the world in a positive way? There certainly is a hollowness I feel in tech. I started because I loved technology and how it helped in so many ways — image processing to help my astronomy classmates glean new insights from data. Tech today is about locking in customers, driving additive products and maximizing profitability. That said, I don’t have the courage to leave.