2 ms·

You need a PHD to be able to build a compiler?

• chrisseaton 6y ago
  In my experience most people working on compilers have PhDs in compilers, yeah. But if you don't agree, take any example you like that requires at least a few years to come up to speed. People aren't going to become an expert tomorrow on whatever subject you're hiring for, no matter how much you pay. If you offered me a million dollars to play the trombone for you I'd love to accept that, but I can't do it until I go away and learn the trombone which would take me years. Offering me ten million dollars wouldn't make me learn it any faster, either. We say that markets are 'inelastic' - they don't adapt to demand magically.
  • ajsnigrutin 6y ago
    But there are other trombone players in the country, google will just have to pay them more than the competition to get them and/or the competition will have to raise their pay to make them stay. In the long run, some orchestras might be a trombone player short, but with high(er) average wages, you'll get more people who take trombone-playing as a career path. There are very very few positions, that you can't fill if you offer above-average pay and working conditions, and most H1B visa carriers now, are not unicorns, but usually just someone willing to work for less money than locals (example: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/04/us/last-task-after-layoff-at-disney-train-foreign-replacements.html https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/04/us/last-task-after-layoff... )
  • travisoneill1 6y ago
    I don't think there really is an example that takes years to get up to speed, because if you can't find someone who has the exact experience, you can find someone in a related field. It took me less than a year from writing my first line of code to working as a software engineer. I bet it would take even less now to be a useful compiler engineer.