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I never understand "x times less" valuations. 1.9 times 100k, for example, would be 190k, so is it paying 190k less? How is this intended to be calculated? I ne
by bedast 4y ago
I never understand "x times less" valuations. 1.9 times 100k, for example, would be 190k, so is it paying 190k less? How is this intended to be calculated? I never went to college so maybe this is a common way to express something being a percentage of something else, a percentage less than something else, or perhaps an average static value less than something else, that I'm not aware of that is being taught.
I would say the HN title probably needs to have the editorialization removed so that it reflects the actual article title and reduce the confusion (Full remote tech jobs pay better, Global Tech Talent Trends shows), but it appears within the article they do use the 1.9x less pay phrase.
- sdfhdhjdw3 4y agoNo, you're right. While "1.9x more" is common enough to have an agreed upon meaning, "1.9x less" is not a common expression. It's just a low quality article, don't think too much about it.
- neallindsay 4y agoMaybe they're trying to say that the full-remote salaries are "1.9x more" than the full-office salaries and they don't understand that it doesn't work that way. That would mean that if full-office salaries were $50,000 then full-remote be $95,000 more, for a total of $145,000.
- bee_rider 4y agoI think they are trying to say that in-person positions pay 1/1.9 times as much as remote ones. On top of the issues around the phrase "x times less" being a bit confusing, this suffers, I think, from false precision. I mean, come on, how accurate is this survey? How about "In person positions pay roughly half that of full-remote ones."
- bedast 4y agoAnd it's this thread of responses that makes it clear that this phrasing is far too ambiguous to be useful, and I'm not alone in that confusion.
- Tagbert 4y ago“X times less” is is not X times Y, it is Y divided by X. That “less” in the statement turned multiplication into division.
- bee_rider 4y agoIn the very least, it is too close to the more familiar phrasing "x% less," which unambiguously means (100 - x)%.
- bee_rider 4y agoI went to college, even tutored some math classes there, "1.9x less" is... somewhere between nonsense and poor math communication skills, I think. Skewing toward the former.
- afiori 4y agoProbably it can be defined as "A is X times more than B" if and only if "B is X times less than A", just not to go to negative values.
- neallindsay 4y agoIf they said "0.3x less" that would make sense. But I agree with you in doubting that the full-office salaries are negative. "1.9x less"… what are they multiplying by 1.9 to figure out how big of a discount from the full-remote salary employers are paying?