I love programming but seeing that first list I can't help but wonder what it takes to be a Director or if the Anesthesiologist route is a more sure way to 300k a year. Trading 6 years for a sure thing doesn't seem like too bad a deal.
Compared to entering a career in software straight out of undergrad, being a doctor takes a while to pay off. It takes even longer to pay off if you consider dollars per hour worked rather than dollars per year elapsed. For example, at the particular residency my wife is at, she works 1.5 to 2x as many hours as I do as a software engineer, while receiving less than half the pay. I should add that there's nothing exceptional about the number of hours either of us work or our pay.
#include <stdio.h> int main(void){puts("\x6d\x69\x6b\x65\x40\x6c\x61\x69\x6f\x73\x61\x2e\x6f\x72\x67");return 0;}
Also, you're guaranteed a nicely paying job, but there's no opportunity for massive wealth like there is in the riskier world of startups. Here, I may make 20k next year, or I may make 2 million. Anything's possible. More risk == more reward. This holds true.
Plus, I heard/read/apocryphalized once that anesthesiologists have the highest incidence of drug addiction of any profession. Apparently it's an occupational hazard to dip into the stash.