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Completely agree with the perspectives here, it is however when telling this to my non-tech friends and collegues a tough pitch: like I'm spoiled or am just liv

Completely agree with the perspectives here, it is however when telling this to my non-tech friends and collegues a tough pitch: like I'm spoiled or am just living on a completely different planet.

indemnity 9y ago
To be honest, given how well tech is compensated, you are living on a different planet. My brother is smarter than me, and works harder, as a teacher. Arguably a more important job since he is educating the next generation. I’m building widgets to help some company do something a tiny bit more efficiently. The excess value thrown off by increasing this efficiency is captured by the company and entirely distributed to the various middlemen, it is not a net benefit to society, it is not changing the world. Someone just found a new way to clip the ticket. Due to the fact that my skills are more in demand, I earn twice his household (him + wife) income. When you add my wife, it’s triple. My struggles are self-actualisation and finding meaning, materially we are very comfortable. His struggles are keeping food on the table. It’s fucked. The answer is not that everyone should become a tech worker or banker.
- 5_minutes 9y ago
  Here in Europe, IT is better paid, and can range up to "much better paid". But it's less of a huge gap compared to, I suppose the US and the real startup scenes there? You can make 500-800 more then the average other people behind a desk, which are perhaps "managers". But the double of them is only for real teamleader positions. So I guess it also depends a bit on location... where are you roughly based? Let's say the average worker is paid 1800-2000. And as decent IT you can add 500-800 on top of that, depending on if you get a car etc also. But hey yes, it's fucked!
  - indemnity 9y ago
    I'm in New Zealand, not the US. But in many ways, our culture is the same, and inequality is rampant. Our current center-right government is also systematically dismantling social welfare and public health systems, with the end-goal being something very similar to the US, I guess.

Completely agree with the perspectives here, it is however when telling this to my non-tech friends and collegues a tough pitch: like I'm spoiled or am just living on a completely different planet.

indemnity 9y ago

To be honest, given how well tech is compensated, you are living on a different planet. My brother is smarter than me, and works harder, as a teacher. Arguably a more important job since he is educating the next generation. I’m building widgets to help some company do something a tiny bit more efficiently. The excess value thrown off by increasing this efficiency is captured by the company and entirely distributed to the various middlemen, it is not a net benefit to society, it is not changing the world. Someone just found a new way to clip the ticket. Due to the fact that my skills are more in demand, I earn twice his household (him + wife) income. When you add my wife, it’s triple. My struggles are self-actualisation and finding meaning, materially we are very comfortable. His struggles are keeping food on the table. It’s fucked. The answer is not that everyone should become a tech worker or banker.

5_minutes 9y ago
Here in Europe, IT is better paid, and can range up to "much better paid". But it's less of a huge gap compared to, I suppose the US and the real startup scenes there? You can make 500-800 more then the average other people behind a desk, which are perhaps "managers". But the double of them is only for real teamleader positions. So I guess it also depends a bit on location... where are you roughly based? Let's say the average worker is paid 1800-2000. And as decent IT you can add 500-800 on top of that, depending on if you get a car etc also. But hey yes, it's fucked!
- indemnity 9y ago
  I'm in New Zealand, not the US. But in many ways, our culture is the same, and inequality is rampant. Our current center-right government is also systematically dismantling social welfare and public health systems, with the end-goal being something very similar to the US, I guess.