[yuy910616]

These industries just have a different mechanism, here is an example: the worlds 10,000th best tennis player probably makes $0 dollar from tennis, and the world's top 0.1% of pharmacists make maybe twice as much as the 50th percentile.

Some industries you either are the top 0.01% and make millions; in some industries being average means a decent living.

Software has long transitioned from one end of that spectrum to something more towards the middle. Super star developers simply aren't productive enough for the demand of software

[culebron21]

To be correct, even the worlds top 50th best tennis player makes $0 (read from couple interviews back in the '00s), it's mostly their family that pays. Below top 20, sponsors may cover part of costs.

Like other sports, it's fun enough that many play it for free at local tournaments, and some families can afford pay expensive flights and stay abroad.

I recall meeting with sportsmen and travellers who do months-long trips across continents. Half of them were pensioneers and just one single guy was a 34-yo die-hard traveller riding a bike across Eurasia for its own sake. Others were professionals, and they'd say they'd been preparing the travel for 2 years, seeking sponsors -- some in equipment, some in money, -- and signing contracts and clarifying sponsorship activity details -- photos here, report and booklet there, etc.

This contrasted a lot with our IT industry "let's do it for fun or learning" spirit.

[hyperhopper]

4 times in this comment you referred to one half of a point you were trying to make but not the other half.

Makes it much more difficult to parse when you say "either" but only provide one half of that statement.