It's almost impossible to directly quantify in dollar terms the productivity of individual programmers. I am suspicious of the claim that all programmers who co

It's almost impossible to directly quantify in dollar terms the productivity of individual programmers. I am suspicious of the claim that all programmers who command a high salary are "highly productive" and "reduce the amount of work that others must do." Unlike professional sports or finance, where extreme outperformers are generally compensated in proportion to their contributions, the output of engineers is generally less quantifiable at tech companies so median engineers are paid more than their personal labor can justify. Tech salaries are also a function of how much VC money has flooded the sector since the crisis - expect this effect to dissipate as (i) investors focus on profitability before growth at all costs in the wake of WeWork etc. and (ii) if/when valuations in private capital markets undergo a correction (for which they are long overdue!)