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> Value tends to scale with scarcity, economics 101. By this reasoning, you'd expect to find the most "valuable" baseball players in areas devoid of profession

> Value tends to scale with scarcity, economics 101. By this reasoning, you'd expect to find the most "valuable" baseball players in areas devoid of professional baseball teams. Something tells me you didn't completely think this through. Gitlab is willing to pay high salaries for people living in expensive areas for essentially the same reason Google's dev offices are mostly located in expensive areas.

richardwhiuk 8y ago
Baseball players move to where there are teams.
- TulliusCicero 8y ago
  And programmers tend to move where there are tech companies.
  - richardwhiuk 8y ago
    Less so. If you want to play in MLB (and you do, because that's where any of the money is) then you have to move to where there's an MLB stadium - the team isn't going to move to you. Whereas, there are many more software companies that pay roughly the same wages all of the world, and companies offer remote work, which will reduce the differentiation - but not eliminate it.
    - ghaff 8y ago
      >there are many more software companies that pay roughly the same wages all of the world I question whether there are many companies that, aside from executives or other high value employees, pay similar salaries around the world. I imagine at least some pay comparable salaries across the US--or at least salaries that don't completely follow CoL--but pay Indian or Chinese developers what they pay Bay Area ones? That seems unlikely at any scale.
    - TulliusCicero 8y ago
      That's why I said "tend to move", yes. > there are many more software companies that pay roughly the same wages all of the world The jobs with the really high salaries (and arguably the most exciting coding jobs) are disproportionately located in a handful of major tech hubs.
flamedoge 8y ago
Programming is unique in that you don't have to be physically located in same place as others to do work. It's no brainer why GitLab is targeting this "hidden" talent pool.
- gaius 8y ago
  Yes and no. I’ve had the opportunity to try some state of the art telepresence/teleconferencing kit. Stuff that they visit your office before they decide if they’ll sell it to you and then do a custom fit-out of a suite. Imagine the swankiest private cinema, x10, and another one on the far side. It doesn’t hold a candle to a bunch of guys in a room at a physical whiteboard, for the sheer collaboration bandwidth. Fully-remote has its use cases, but it doesn’t cover all use cases.
  - skeptic_69 8y ago
    I agree.
wolco 8y ago
Most players drafted are not from big cities with professional teams. Most are from smaller farming communities, poorer countries, etc. The reason is big city kids have better options with higher success rate compared to more rural kids.
randomdata 8y ago
> By this reasoning, you'd expect to find the most "valuable" baseball players in areas devoid of professional baseball teams. Why? Scarcity is dependent on demand. Something that absolutely nobody wants will never be scarce, even if the quantities of said thing are small in absolute numbers. If there is no professional baseball team, presumably nobody needs a professional baseball player, and thus professional baseball players won't be scarce at all, but rather infinitely abundant and pay will reflect that by trending towards zero.

richardwhiuk 8y ago

Baseball players move to where there are teams.

TulliusCicero 8y ago
And programmers tend to move where there are tech companies.
- richardwhiuk 8y ago
  Less so. If you want to play in MLB (and you do, because that's where any of the money is) then you have to move to where there's an MLB stadium - the team isn't going to move to you. Whereas, there are many more software companies that pay roughly the same wages all of the world, and companies offer remote work, which will reduce the differentiation - but not eliminate it.
  - ghaff 8y ago
    >there are many more software companies that pay roughly the same wages all of the world I question whether there are many companies that, aside from executives or other high value employees, pay similar salaries around the world. I imagine at least some pay comparable salaries across the US--or at least salaries that don't completely follow CoL--but pay Indian or Chinese developers what they pay Bay Area ones? That seems unlikely at any scale.
  - TulliusCicero 8y ago
    That's why I said "tend to move", yes. > there are many more software companies that pay roughly the same wages all of the world The jobs with the really high salaries (and arguably the most exciting coding jobs) are disproportionately located in a handful of major tech hubs.

flamedoge 8y ago

Programming is unique in that you don't have to be physically located in same place as others to do work. It's no brainer why GitLab is targeting this "hidden" talent pool.

gaius 8y ago
Yes and no. I’ve had the opportunity to try some state of the art telepresence/teleconferencing kit. Stuff that they visit your office before they decide if they’ll sell it to you and then do a custom fit-out of a suite. Imagine the swankiest private cinema, x10, and another one on the far side. It doesn’t hold a candle to a bunch of guys in a room at a physical whiteboard, for the sheer collaboration bandwidth. Fully-remote has its use cases, but it doesn’t cover all use cases.
- skeptic_69 8y ago
  I agree.

wolco 8y ago

Most players drafted are not from big cities with professional teams. Most are from smaller farming communities, poorer countries, etc. The reason is big city kids have better options with higher success rate compared to more rural kids.

randomdata 8y ago

> By this reasoning, you'd expect to find the most "valuable" baseball players in areas devoid of professional baseball teams. Why? Scarcity is dependent on demand. Something that absolutely nobody wants will never be scarce, even if the quantities of said thing are small in absolute numbers. If there is no professional baseball team, presumably nobody needs a professional baseball player, and thus professional baseball players won't be scarce at all, but rather infinitely abundant and pay will reflect that by trending towards zero.