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> I sometimes wonder what would happen if some company simply offered to pay 3X the market rate and mercilessly filter the results. I've always heard this is t

> I sometimes wonder what would happen if some company simply offered to pay 3X the market rate and mercilessly filter the results. I've always heard this is the Netflix model. > difference between developer salaries at any company varies by maybe 50%, whereas the productivity varies by at least a full order of magnitude. I like your thought process but do you really believe this is possible? There are few fields where you can observe order of magnitude differences in salary. As you said, human nature seems to reject this, likely because it does not really occur in the wild. Even in sports it is rare for a particular position to have pay disparity to that degree.

eberkund 9y ago
What do you mean even in sports? What metric are you using to compare on athlete to another? Obviously one golfer won't be able to hit the ball 10x as far or sink the ball in 10x fewer strokes than another. Obviously a gold medal sprinter won't run 10x as fast as the an amateur. But they very well may be better than 10x as many others and that small difference in speed is what makes the difference between winning and losing. The claim the parent poster is making is different, because programming is much different than sports in that he really is claiming that one programmer can create 10x as much valuable work than another. Very different from saying that one programming contest competitor is 10x better than the average programming contest contestant.
- thaumasiotes 9y ago
  > Obviously one golfer won't be able to hit the ball 10x as far or sink the ball in 10x fewer strokes than another. Obviously a gold medal sprinter won't run 10x as fast as the an amateur. What's obvious about that? I can pretty well guarantee the existence of golfers who need 10x the strokes of professional golfers. I can definitely guarantee the existence of people who can't manage 10% of the running speed of a gold medal sprinter.
  - mattkrause 9y ago
    Usain Bolt's average speed was about 23 miles per hour[0] when he set the world record (9.58 sec/100m). Nearly everyone can "run" 2.3 mph for a quarter-lap; that's not even a brisk walking pace. The 10x programmer idea also applies to adults working as programmers. If you were to limit the runners to an analogous population (runners, I guess, or even healthy adults), I'd definitely take that bet. [0] His peak speed was a bit faster (~27 mph), but the point stands...
  - ramblerman 9y ago
    Existence is not enough, you have to prove it is the average. The 10x programmer is not 10x vs the worst programmer, but 10x vs the crowd. Most people could beat a par 3 in less than 30 strokes given 1 week of exposure to golf.
    - eberkund 9y ago
      I was going to reply to the parent but you and the other poster articulating it well for me. Thanks.
taway_1212 9y ago
>> I sometimes wonder what would happen if some company simply offered to pay 3X the market rate and mercilessly filter the results. > I've always heard this is the Netflix model. Also, Valve. By some accounts, this creates terrible working environment, where people are competing instead of cooperating. Not to mention it distorts the incentives, as devs are heavily incentivised to project an image of being impactful high-achiever (as oposed to actually just being one, and not having to manage one's image). Of course, it also happens in regular companies, but here higher stakes make the game more vicious.

eberkund 9y ago

What do you mean even in sports? What metric are you using to compare on athlete to another? Obviously one golfer won't be able to hit the ball 10x as far or sink the ball in 10x fewer strokes than another. Obviously a gold medal sprinter won't run 10x as fast as the an amateur. But they very well may be better than 10x as many others and that small difference in speed is what makes the difference between winning and losing. The claim the parent poster is making is different, because programming is much different than sports in that he really is claiming that one programmer can create 10x as much valuable work than another. Very different from saying that one programming contest competitor is 10x better than the average programming contest contestant.

thaumasiotes 9y ago
> Obviously one golfer won't be able to hit the ball 10x as far or sink the ball in 10x fewer strokes than another. Obviously a gold medal sprinter won't run 10x as fast as the an amateur. What's obvious about that? I can pretty well guarantee the existence of golfers who need 10x the strokes of professional golfers. I can definitely guarantee the existence of people who can't manage 10% of the running speed of a gold medal sprinter.
- mattkrause 9y ago
  Usain Bolt's average speed was about 23 miles per hour[0] when he set the world record (9.58 sec/100m). Nearly everyone can "run" 2.3 mph for a quarter-lap; that's not even a brisk walking pace. The 10x programmer idea also applies to adults working as programmers. If you were to limit the runners to an analogous population (runners, I guess, or even healthy adults), I'd definitely take that bet. [0] His peak speed was a bit faster (~27 mph), but the point stands...
- ramblerman 9y ago
  Existence is not enough, you have to prove it is the average. The 10x programmer is not 10x vs the worst programmer, but 10x vs the crowd. Most people could beat a par 3 in less than 30 strokes given 1 week of exposure to golf.
  - eberkund 9y ago
    I was going to reply to the parent but you and the other poster articulating it well for me. Thanks.

taway_1212 9y ago

>> I sometimes wonder what would happen if some company simply offered to pay 3X the market rate and mercilessly filter the results. > I've always heard this is the Netflix model. Also, Valve. By some accounts, this creates terrible working environment, where people are competing instead of cooperating. Not to mention it distorts the incentives, as devs are heavily incentivised to project an image of being impactful high-achiever (as oposed to actually just being one, and not having to manage one's image). Of course, it also happens in regular companies, but here higher stakes make the game more vicious.