You're positing a very strong selection mechanism connecting math interest with math jobs. I'm sure Terry likes solving math problems, but miscalculations like that are the norm, not the exception, in human affairs.

I'd rather be a monk than a peasant too, but I'd much rather be Chaucer, and I think that most monks would too. The difference between monks and professors is that one works a LOT harder to become a professor. If you are going to work that hard, you may as well make something of yourself.