I’ve often wondered if the reason Bay Area engineers are paid so much more than in other places is not because of anything they’re doing, but because of their c

I’ve often wondered if the reason Bay Area engineers are paid so much more than in other places is not because of anything they’re doing, but because of their cross functional counterparts. A team is often composed of not just engineers, but product managers, designers, people managers, data analysts, program managers, quality assurance, etc. Having them all in one place, or at least in a similar time zone makes a difference. If you can’t build out a *full* team in one region, you have to go where you can. So while you might be able to find plenty of engineers in Poland (for example), if you can’t also get a product manager, a designer, and an eng manager, you may not be able to hire any of those engineers, and you’re just going to have to look for where you can hire everyone. That may mean going to the Bay Area and paying engineers there their market rate. Just a theory.