>> MechE are probably only 20% of what you'd earn studying CS

Maybe if you are a MechE working for facebook or twitter. But go to something like SpaceX or BMW and you will find the best MechEs paid way more than the software people. The insane paychecks in CS only exist at companies where software is the final product. Companies that produce physical products put CS into a support role. A department head at Boeing or LM is far more likely to be from an engineering background.

Then you'd just be a dilettante.

Not much wrong with that, as long as your family is fed. My degree is in Mechanical Engineering. Most every dollar I've earned was from computers. I still faff around doing enjoyable hobby projects in engineering (ultra-light ME, EE, CS) with the kids. It's a fine life.

I prefer the word amateur, which shares the same root as "love" for a reason.

Sorry but this is such an HN comment. It manages to simultaneously make everything about money, basically position things in the context of Big Tech, and assume that your specific undergraduate degree charts your career.

For the record, I have an ME undergrad (and a grad degree that's basically material science) and while I've mostly only used my direct classwork a bit, I've done fine.

20% is probably a bit of an exaggeration. I wor in tech and worked in the regular industry prior. I would say my wage is about 20-30% less than my peers of the same level. I don't know anyone that works for a company that has a payband difference more than one sigma for each IC level.

This is basically a drop in to Facebook or Google and make $600K/year or life isn't worth living sort of comment. (And I doubt if it's even accurate as someone as someone with non-CS degrees.)

Hardware engineers in MAANG makes about 20% less as well (anecdotally). Our wage is not that far off in tech (one signs as I mentioned). But we definitely have way less job openings compared to our SWE peers.

The claim was you'd make 1/5th. Which may have been a wording mistake. I'd believe maybe 20% less in general--which may very well be fine for many people if that's their preference.