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I was about to make this point myself (maybe with different wording). It's a good point. Would the people downvoting care to explain their objections?

mattnewton 9y ago
Paying people 1 million dollars a year does not make more Geoff Hintons appear. It will increase supply, by taking it from other industries over time as people choose to go into these fields, but there is a lot of truly specialized work out there where it is just impractical to wait for the people to get years of experience. It is a gross, gross oversimplification, and a dangerous one. The United States has well less than 5% of the worlds population. We are extremely lucky to attract the top talent from the other 95% and we need to defend that pipeline.
- humanrebar 9y ago
  "42% of California's STEM workforce" aren't Geoff Hintons. I don't see anyone arguing that exceptional talent shouldn't be welcomed into the U.S. And I think the U.S. tech workforce is more elastic than you give credit for, especially for software skills. It's just most organizations want employees they don't have to train for their stacks, which I don't think is particularly reasonable.
tanilama 9y ago
Because it is fantasy, and simply disobey how the market works? Kick out all the competitors won't hike your salary forever. Companies aren't that stupid, and human resource cost is definitely on their radar and there is a budget for that. 1 million? I say once average developer costs over 200k, companies will start move jobs to other places that are still cheap.
- humanrebar 9y ago
  > I say once average developer costs over 200k, companies will start move jobs to other places that are still cheap. Seems like a feature not a bug to me.
- stale2002 9y ago
  Ugg, maybe my post wasn't clear. Obviously it is ridiculous to pay people 1 million dollars. In the same way that it is ridiculous to pay a thousand dollars for bread.

mattnewton 9y ago

Paying people 1 million dollars a year does not make more Geoff Hintons appear. It will increase supply, by taking it from other industries over time as people choose to go into these fields, but there is a lot of truly specialized work out there where it is just impractical to wait for the people to get years of experience. It is a gross, gross oversimplification, and a dangerous one. The United States has well less than 5% of the worlds population. We are extremely lucky to attract the top talent from the other 95% and we need to defend that pipeline.

humanrebar 9y ago
"42% of California's STEM workforce" aren't Geoff Hintons. I don't see anyone arguing that exceptional talent shouldn't be welcomed into the U.S. And I think the U.S. tech workforce is more elastic than you give credit for, especially for software skills. It's just most organizations want employees they don't have to train for their stacks, which I don't think is particularly reasonable.

tanilama 9y ago

Because it is fantasy, and simply disobey how the market works? Kick out all the competitors won't hike your salary forever. Companies aren't that stupid, and human resource cost is definitely on their radar and there is a budget for that. 1 million? I say once average developer costs over 200k, companies will start move jobs to other places that are still cheap.

humanrebar 9y ago
> I say once average developer costs over 200k, companies will start move jobs to other places that are still cheap. Seems like a feature not a bug to me.
stale2002 9y ago
Ugg, maybe my post wasn't clear. Obviously it is ridiculous to pay people 1 million dollars. In the same way that it is ridiculous to pay a thousand dollars for bread.