My experience has been that top technical talent doesn't want to focus on non-technical things, like finding a new job, or even maximizing their income as an em

My experience has been that top technical talent doesn't want to focus on non-technical things, like finding a new job, or even maximizing their income as an employee, so I think keeping them happy has more to do with how you feed them technical challenges and how much freedom you give them (and how you give them that freedom) and how valued they feel than with how much you pay them. I mean, if you pay them so little that it's a problem, they will deal with that problem, but after that? yeah, I don't think that compensation is as important as you say. My experience has been that the people who really focus on maximizing the money are folks like me; I mean, I'm no idiot, but I'm certainly nowhere near the best of the best technically. And even me, I'll choose freedom over maximizing my short-run income.