It's not that I'm unsympathetic to the artists, but I think that it's unrealistic that they'd expect otherwise.
A career in tech has a crazy pile of expenses associated (Stanford isn't giving away comp sci degrees; continuing education unless you want to end up a one-trick pony), in additional to all the unfortunateness of having to live in a hyper-expensive tech hub for as long as you want to make money at it.
Yeah, you can much cheaper degree (I did) and live in a cheaper region (I had), but that almost guarantees hitting a lower career ceiling than if you have a Berkeley diploma and live in San Jose.
Almost all careers involve tradeoffs. If you want to rise to the limits of your abilities you're going to have to make some hard decisions. Otherwise you'll be competing with the other workers who are happy to get paid less for easier work. In tech, this means a mid-range job in a small market. For musicians, this means playing gigs in Des Moines instead of clubs in LA. Them's the breaks.
> A career in tech has a crazy pile of expenses associated (Stanford isn't giving away comp sci degrees
I would contend that for somebody who's already going to Be Good At This, that would be a crazy expense from a bad decision. The best three engineers I know have degrees from UMass-Lowell, UMaine, and the University of Delaware. (I'm not #2, but I went to UMaine and graduated with $20K in loans. Paid off in four years, and I slacked.)
As far as lower career ceilings--each of those people (and I) are at lead/staff-level positions in the Boston area and have not wanted for challenging or well-paying work, while having expenses less than half of your average San Francisco tech nerd. The specter of the Bay Area looms large, but I think it's silly in how all-consuming it's considered.
A career in tech has a crazy pile of expenses associated (Stanford isn't giving away comp sci degrees; continuing education unless you want to end up a one-trick pony), in additional to all the unfortunateness of having to live in a hyper-expensive tech hub for as long as you want to make money at it.
Yeah, you can much cheaper degree (I did) and live in a cheaper region (I had), but that almost guarantees hitting a lower career ceiling than if you have a Berkeley diploma and live in San Jose.
Almost all careers involve tradeoffs. If you want to rise to the limits of your abilities you're going to have to make some hard decisions. Otherwise you'll be competing with the other workers who are happy to get paid less for easier work. In tech, this means a mid-range job in a small market. For musicians, this means playing gigs in Des Moines instead of clubs in LA. Them's the breaks.