Does anyone else feel that they basically lucked into a high paying career because their interests randomly aligned with scarcity and a rapidly growing field, and that it's nowhere near as hard, or as societally valuable as what teachers, medical professionals and care-givers do?

— Colm MacCárthaigh (@colmmacc) April 24, 2019

Absolutely. I happened to be interested in computers and that led me to a career in IT. I don’t think what I do is even as valuable as what a janitor does, but I was in the right place at the right time with the right set of skills. That’s all.

If I’d stayed in journalism, my original career choice, my life would’ve been much different — and worse. I didn’t switch through any real wisdom or because I knew journalism would basically die (this was in the 1990s), but because I liked goofing around with computers better.

Don’t get me wrong, though. I do provide value and I am very good at my job and improving all the time. I just think what a janitor or a teacher does is more valuable though compensated far less.

Thank the heavens my dad was obsessed with computers. That really changed everything for me.