Or do both! I always cringe when I meet good programmers that have no understanding of what is going on at the hardware level.
(My impression is that $150k is a plausible entry-level quant salary, but it seems a bit strange to describe that as "mid-six-figure".)
(a*b)^1/2 # geometric mean, square root of the product of the two numbers
(10^5 * 10^6)^(1/2) # substitute in for 10^5 and 10^6, the limits of the six-figure range
(10^(5+6))^(1/2) # simplify inner product
(10^11)^(1/2) # more simplify
10^(11 * 1/2) # move the 1/2 in, and ...
10^(11/2) # simplify
10^5.5 # and finally you get the same result
What use is physics when you have an infinite tape?
Wasn't that the GP's point that to make the transition from CS to programming some knowledge of physical realities of computers might be useful??