I really appreciate everyone's advice in the previous comment thread (keep it coming, if you've got more). Also thanks to ogged for directing his sage readership over to advise my callow self. As you all can probably tell from my responses in the thread, I'm still leaning toward taking the job. If I'm going to gamble with my career, now is the time to do it. Maybe the last time.

But I'm going to be subjected to some high-intensity hectoring from my mother over the holiday, who is not a fan of this earn-less-money initiative. And I'll actually crunch the numbers, instead of estimating them in my head on the way to the metro. And I'll be talking to the guy who's leaving the position on Friday. Maybe he'll tell me all the bohemianism is a lie, and the place is actually run by Chets in sandals. We'll see whether my starry-eyed idealism emerges from the weekend unscathed.

At any rate, happy Thanksgiving to everybody.