5 ms·
I think developers are motivated by money, but here's the difference: If a developer finds out that the incompetent sitting across from him is making $10k more
by pw0ncakes 17y ago
I think developers are motivated by money, but here's the difference: If a developer finds out that the incompetent sitting across from him is making $10k more per year, because of being hired at the right time, he's not likely to care all that much, as long as he's happy with what he makes. It's not taken as a affront, the way it would be among traditional business people. Status in software is measured by access to interesting work and opportunities, not compensation.
We start caring at the 20-50% level, but not about minor differences. Even then, it's not always worth it to get bothered by it. It's mildly irksome to see utter douchebags, at the same age and with not 1/10 my level of talent, making $500k in private equity for literally no good reason, but I can't do anything about it and it doesn't directly affect me (except via New York's absurd rents, but that has more to do with government mismanagement of the property market) so I don't really care enough to think about it that much.
- warfangle 17y agoCan you expound upon why government mismanagement of the property market has caused NYC's absurd median rent? Or, at the very least, point me towards an interesting/insightful article on the subject? Thanks!
- pw0ncakes 17y agoThe problem isn't anything that the local government did, but what it didn't do. There are a lot of steps that could have been taken to lower the rent and property prices. For example, one measure is disallowing anyone to own property in New York that they don't live in at least 6 months plus 1 day. (The same is true of rent control, since a lot of RC people now live out of the city but keep the apartment because it's cheaper than staying at a hotel for 2-3 weeks.) Finally, the underemployed and parentally funded (trust fund kids) should not be allowed to drive up the rents. (The fact that they ruin the city is an ancillary annoyance.) This can be accomplished by making it illegal to pay more than a certain percentage of one's after-tax salary (say, 40%) in rent.
- warfangle 17y agoLatter idea is interesting. It certainly would have slowed the gentrification of Williamsburg, and kept it an interesting neighborhood for longer. It would have also prevented the multitude of overpriced (and undersold) condos littering that area - along with the empty lots that were going to be overpriced condos before the bust.
- _delirium 17y agoThe last seems like it'd have a lot of ways to backfire, though. Will there be a grace period in bad economies, so people who lose their jobs, or involuntarily get moved to part-time work, don't also have to move out? What about people bootstrapping startups by living off savings from a previous job?
- pw0ncakes 17y agoYes, of course. People who recently lost jobs or were working for bootstrapped startups would get an exemption.
- wallflower 17y agoDoesn't NYC have the strictest renting laws? For example, you have to prove you make 52x the monthly rent to sign a lease. Obviously, sublets are a way around that income floor.
- yummyfajitas 17y agoMost landlords will not rent to you if you don't make 40x monthly rent, but it is not a legal requirement.
- pw0ncakes 17y agoIt's 40x, but it's not a legal requirement, and if you can get a "guarantor" making 80x, you can circumscribe that, so the parentally-funded unproductives who are ruining this city get a pass.
- 17y ago
- wdewind 17y agoYeah I'd be interested too (New Yorker).