The vast majority of those comp packages are due to stock appreciation, and in the cases where they are not, it's due to competition between FAANG companies - a

The vast majority of those comp packages are due to stock appreciation, and in the cases where they are not, it's due to competition between FAANG companies - all of which require you to relocate to a super high COL area and go into an office and deal with a questionable corporate environment. None of this applies to Basecamp, and as much as I'm a fan of Rails I've spent a lot of time in that source and am not of the mind that a top Rails hacker is doing work nearly as difficult as the more sr. staff at a FAANG.