I am aware of the various biases in the question :)
There seems to be information asymmetry in programming that doesn't exist in law, medicine, or banking. Everyone knows what you can make with a career in Big Law, or IBanking.
Compare this with programming - if you grew up in an uneducated household/poor highshool, you're told programming jobs are getting outsourced - be a doctor or lawyer. One level up, if you're at a semi-decent state school, you can go through your entire college career as a super star CS student and never hear the words 'quantitative hedge fund' uttered in your university's career center.
So what are these careers where people are making these large comps programming? Are they all quants and/or entrepreneurs?
Is there a strategic way to earn this much income, or is it predicated on having credentials/skills only .01% of all programmers have - that give you access to the .01% of jobs that pay this much? What are the risk profile needed for these outcomes? (Are we just seeing strong survivor bias?) I'd appreciate any anonymous perspective from "the other side".