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I think the reason software pays so well is because the world is simply littered with computers. Today's software developers are earning a fortune from the fer

I think the reason software pays so well is because the world is simply littered with computers. Today's software developers are earning a fortune from the fertile soil that has been spread around in the form of computers in everyone's pockets. Making those computers x% more useful to y% of their owners scales as a function of the number of computer owners. The fruit keeps hanging lower and lower to the point that it's hard not to step on it. It's easy money because most of the work is done as the byproduct of investments by other industries, like telecom, but the extra value is unlocked by the software developers.

ethbro 7y ago
It's generalizable and something I'm confused they don't teach kids in career counseling. Max(salary) = unit_value * number_of_units_impacted Software generates a high ceiling because number of units impacted can be huge, so unit value can be low. In contrast, you can only pay teachers / doctors / firefighters / police officers so much, because their number of units impacted has a fundamental cap (the number of people they can physically interact with in a given day). Which is... unfortunate. Because (IMHO) they deliver a lot more value to society, and work harder, than I do.
- WrtCdEvrydy 7y ago
  Bullshit Jobs includes an interesting section about the IT professions saying that 'noone wants to pay to develop a database that is amazing, but people will pay millions to someone who increases clickthrough on an ad of even a 0.1%.'
- pmiller2 7y ago
  Congratulations. You just discovered the Baumol effect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baumol%27s_cost_disease https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baumol%27s_cost_disease
  - ethbro 7y ago
    Hmm. I'd need to see some research to believe that's happening. It seems like non-software folks are getting paid the same, leading to wider inequality.

ethbro 7y ago

It's generalizable and something I'm confused they don't teach kids in career counseling. Max(salary) = unit_value * number_of_units_impacted Software generates a high ceiling because number of units impacted can be huge, so unit value can be low. In contrast, you can only pay teachers / doctors / firefighters / police officers so much, because their number of units impacted has a fundamental cap (the number of people they can physically interact with in a given day). Which is... unfortunate. Because (IMHO) they deliver a lot more value to society, and work harder, than I do.

WrtCdEvrydy 7y ago
Bullshit Jobs includes an interesting section about the IT professions saying that 'noone wants to pay to develop a database that is amazing, but people will pay millions to someone who increases clickthrough on an ad of even a 0.1%.'
pmiller2 7y ago
Congratulations. You just discovered the Baumol effect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baumol%27s_cost_disease https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baumol%27s_cost_disease
- ethbro 7y ago
  Hmm. I'd need to see some research to believe that's happening. It seems like non-software folks are getting paid the same, leading to wider inequality.