Ask HN: Delivery guy is a chemist with 2 teenage kids. Can this happen to me?

As I was schlepping boxes with a man 15 years my senior from curbside up to my unit for a $25 tip, we were talking about how back at UofA he developed a 5 carbon ring synthesis method that uses free radicals to protect functional groups. He told me of his kids one finished grade 12 math in grade 10. How is this possible, in fact common, that the lowest paid people in society often have advanced degrees? I'm terrified that I'm going to end up the same way.