Before going to grad school, I was socially quite isolated, partly as a function of being labeled as gifted, partly growing up in a pretty rural area. Going to grad school let me be among a cohort of true peers for the first time in my life. That was incredibly valuable, and the friendships I formed are still meaningful.

I also benefitted from a first-class (UC Berkeley) academic computer science environment. My masters work was on static memory management for ML-family languages, which turned out to be excellent preparation for Rust. The study of algorithm theory has helped me develop parallel GPU algorithms.

Now I work as a researcher and am doing what I love. If I had stayed on the business track, I might be richer in dollars, but not as happy.