Be really awesome at whatever you specialty is (provided it's not something that has no business value at all) - and be able to prove it (through open source, b

Be really awesome at whatever you specialty is (provided it's not something that has no business value at all) - and be able to prove it (through open source, books/talks, demoscene, robotics projects - whatever is appropriate in your field). That should easily enough put you in the $250k+ bracket. Granted, I think that level of expertise may be achievable only by the gited, while the rest of us ordinary folks may have to accept our ordinariness and the meh salary and positions that come with it. Or, alternatively, go to an industry like finance, which pays a lot for just domain knowledge without neccessarily having to be an exceptional programmer.