3 ms·

What’s your basis for determing status? In my experience it massively elevated my status 15 years ago thru now, where it seems to have no effect and perhaps an

What’s your basis for determing status? In my experience it massively elevated my status 15 years ago thru now, where it seems to have no effect and perhaps anchor me away from higher level jobs given the value of the output and scarcity of 10x engineers. I’m happy enough as a simple IC if they pay and treat me well, but that’s not been the case in 5+ years which has me in retirement from the field.

marktangotango 8y ago
You’re saying there’s less status now than 15 years ago and you’re retired now? Can you talk about your experience, very interesting!
slededit 8y ago
Status normally follows money (with enough gestation time). For the simple reason to get money you need to convince someone who already has it to give it to you. The inverse is also true, while a Noble title will get you a good spot at a traditional restaurant in London - for the most part nobody cares now that they don't employ half the village.
- TeMPOraL 8y ago
  It seems to be reversed or less related in software. As programmers went from curiosity to wizards (high-status), their salaries went up, but these days coders are dime a dozen, but the salaries are still high due to what seems to be a combination of adtech boom and demand still outpacing supply. Anecdotal, but the way I sampled the status question is this: 15 years ago, when I told someone I can code, I was seen as some sort of genius. Fast-forward couple of years, and the exchange started to go like this: "What do you do?" "I'm a software developer." "Oh cool. Like my boyfriend and my brother."
  - lsc 8y ago
    You and I take the same situation and see it very differently. My impression is that most people don't see intelligence as a good thing; not socially, at least. 15 or 20 years ago, if I said I was a programmer outside of my chosen peer group, people were more likely to respond like I was someone not worth associating with socially. Now, people almost treat it like any other high earning professional. My impression was that then, it was only a job you went into if you didn't have opportunities in business or law or whatever. Now? it's on the standard path to both of those, and catching up (but still not there) on renumeration. My impression is that a lot of the people who came into the industry after me were the sorts who would have gone into business or law in the '90s. This makes me seem a lot more socially normal than I was when I was younger.

marktangotango 8y ago

You’re saying there’s less status now than 15 years ago and you’re retired now? Can you talk about your experience, very interesting!

slededit 8y ago

Status normally follows money (with enough gestation time). For the simple reason to get money you need to convince someone who already has it to give it to you. The inverse is also true, while a Noble title will get you a good spot at a traditional restaurant in London - for the most part nobody cares now that they don't employ half the village.

TeMPOraL 8y ago
It seems to be reversed or less related in software. As programmers went from curiosity to wizards (high-status), their salaries went up, but these days coders are dime a dozen, but the salaries are still high due to what seems to be a combination of adtech boom and demand still outpacing supply. Anecdotal, but the way I sampled the status question is this: 15 years ago, when I told someone I can code, I was seen as some sort of genius. Fast-forward couple of years, and the exchange started to go like this: "What do you do?" "I'm a software developer." "Oh cool. Like my boyfriend and my brother."
- lsc 8y ago
  You and I take the same situation and see it very differently. My impression is that most people don't see intelligence as a good thing; not socially, at least. 15 or 20 years ago, if I said I was a programmer outside of my chosen peer group, people were more likely to respond like I was someone not worth associating with socially. Now, people almost treat it like any other high earning professional. My impression was that then, it was only a job you went into if you didn't have opportunities in business or law or whatever. Now? it's on the standard path to both of those, and catching up (but still not there) on renumeration. My impression is that a lot of the people who came into the industry after me were the sorts who would have gone into business or law in the '90s. This makes me seem a lot more socially normal than I was when I was younger.