[VirusNewbie]

damn, very impressive. As I was reading your post I think the only thing that could tempt me away from a 1M a year job might be an offer from OpenAI, and sure enough it sounds like you have that option.

>"and quality of life hit (longer hours, worse commute, higher stress) are worth the tradeoff."

Looking back, the hours I put in were never the largest factor in my happiness, it's always been having a cool boss, having interesting problems to solve and having engaged coworkers that mattered most. YMMV.

"there is really no "let's keep my current situation constant in my relatively cushy role".

I don't know if that's true, if you're willing to take a (huge) pay cut. There are probably a ton of small companies that would take for a modest salary and some stock options that may or may not pay off, even if you were going to put in 30 hours a week or something.