This actually makes a lot of sense, I never thought about programming this way. Even doctors and lawyers have upper limit of what they can make as an individual

This actually makes a lot of sense, I never thought about programming this way. Even doctors and lawyers have upper limit of what they can make as an individual contributors. Eventually they open their own practice and hire a team to go to next level. I have a lot of super smart engineer friends who are frustrated that they probably will not make much more money than what they make now, inflation adjusted. A lot of them are trading or getting into real estate. I will share this analogy with them, perhaps they should be teaming up and starting their own consulting firms.