Most folks in highly technical fields: Math, Physics, Statistics, Biology, Chemistry, etc. find themselves, like me, faced with a choice early on. Either you take a full time corporate job (the pay can be very enticing, but not as much as say SALES in the same firm) or you go into Academia (pay is less and pressure (both internal and corporate) is horrific).
The problem is, with either option you are always being confined to corporate work, and you are presenting your results to people who have no clue what you're talking about. Having tried, for a short while, both, I came to the conclusion that I wasn't getting anywhere professionally. I then embarked on my current path which is consulting, thus being able to pick my clients and the work I want to do. There is no UBI (or equivalent) for consultants. If you have a gig, you're being paid. If not, you're screwed. You can't apply for unemployment (unless you're on a 1099 - which is rare - and then you have to be on the same gig for at least 6 months - also rare). So the only way to survive is to be as stingy as possible, and have savings because you can count on the fact that you'll need them.
If there were some form of UBI one might be able dedicate one's talents to problems that serve humanity, the greater good, if you will, and not corporate greed. The field of pure research - dedicated to solving hard problems that take time and that could benefit everyone - has been destroyed by Capitalism. Even what were once places of pure thought (IBM, Los Alamos, Bell Labs) have become fronts for corporations and only work on problems whose short term results will generate profits somewhere for someone. But never for the people who actually achieve those results.

Last edited by Ezekiel; 08/15/16 10:14 AM.
"The liberals can understand everything but people who don't understand them."
Lenny Bruce

"The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month."
Dostoevsky