First off, I have no interest in being a mathematician. Math was always and continues to be quite difficult for me.
So, as an outsider to advanced math, it blows my mind that there are people who’s entire job title is mathematician. How does that work? What does a mathematician do?
A friend of mine works for a baseball team as a statistician making incredible amounts of money.
My maths teacher back in the late 90s had his little side job doing Cricket stats. He always described it that way. Imagine my surprise when he came clean one day and mentioned he made more money from 8 hours a week doing Cricket stats than he did from 40+ hours a week teaching. He “jokingly” asked if I had made my first million a year after I graduated, mentioned it to my mum and she told me he had turned a $100k inheritance into his first million 2 years later thanks to buying some property in the path of a resort 6 months before planning application was submitted at age 18.