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The reason I as a dev earn a lot more than our order picker where I work is that the software I have built is speeding up everything. I created massive improvem

by avgDev 4y ago

The reason I as a dev earn a lot more than our order picker where I work is that the software I have built is speeding up everything. I created massive improvements in efficiency. My high salary is justified because my work has a much bigger impact on the finances. It is that simple. I interview often to get a true market rate. Nobody would pay me what I'm making if the market for devs wasn't this good.

XorNot 4y ago
> is that the software I have built is speeding up everything. Your high salary isn't "justified" by anything except current market supply and demand. Which is to some extent, very much the natural case in point: a software developer is no value to me if what I need is a carpenter.
- thrown_22 4y ago
  Supply and demand only work in the short term as an explanation why something costs the amount it does _right now_. Once enough time has passed for the markets to adjust then there is something fundamental that causes them to be stuck at a given level. Software development is applied autism. There aren't many people on the spectrum and the ones of us lucky enough to be interested in computers (instead of say model trains) are making out like bandits because there's no one else who could do our jobs. OP already covered why there's such a high demand for us. When you have a limited supply and unlimited demand wages increase. Or to put it another way: there are no other professions that can make 10 million for their employers in an afternoon by thinking really hard.
  - ElfinTrousers 4y ago
    > Supply and demand only work in the short term as an explanation why something costs the amount it does _right now_. Once enough time has passed for the markets to adjust then there is something fundamental that causes them to be stuck at a given level. [citation needed] > Software development is applied autism. [citation needed] > Or to put it another way: there are no other professions that can make 10 million for their employers in an afternoon by thinking really hard. The entire finance industry called and wants to have a word. Not that I'm a fan of theirs, but perhaps you should think harder next time before you post.
    - thrown_22 4y ago
      The financial industry doesn't make money out of bits and bytes. They make money out of other money and lose all of it every 10 years or so. We're seeing it real time today hilariously enough.
tough 4y ago
so how much does an $avgDev make?
- avgDev 4y ago
  A pretty average number of course.
duped 4y ago
You're paid what it costs for you not to work somewhere else. This is largely decoupled from how much value you create. The only kind of compensation that is correlated to value are sales commissions, which most devs don't make. A lot of us get deluded from the fact that we're highly skilled labor that takes a ton of training and skill sets most people don't have, while at the moment we make products with zero marginal costs. It's not the latter that's as important as the former.
- _huayra_ 4y ago
  > You're paid what it costs for you not to work somewhere else. This is largely decoupled from how much value you create. I bet quite a number of HNers have liked a given workplace, but done the "job boomerang" where they jumped over to a much higher paying (but less desirable to them) job, only to jump back to their preferred place at much MUCH higher pay. I hate interviewing as much as the next person, but it is the only way to actually get closer to what one is worth. Trying to just save up for when the AI gets so good all of us will be going to FCs like this story /s

by avgDev 4y ago

XorNot 4y ago

> is that the software I have built is speeding up everything. Your high salary isn't "justified" by anything except current market supply and demand. Which is to some extent, very much the natural case in point: a software developer is no value to me if what I need is a carpenter.

thrown_22 4y ago
Supply and demand only work in the short term as an explanation why something costs the amount it does _right now_. Once enough time has passed for the markets to adjust then there is something fundamental that causes them to be stuck at a given level. Software development is applied autism. There aren't many people on the spectrum and the ones of us lucky enough to be interested in computers (instead of say model trains) are making out like bandits because there's no one else who could do our jobs. OP already covered why there's such a high demand for us. When you have a limited supply and unlimited demand wages increase. Or to put it another way: there are no other professions that can make 10 million for their employers in an afternoon by thinking really hard.
- ElfinTrousers 4y ago
  > Supply and demand only work in the short term as an explanation why something costs the amount it does _right now_. Once enough time has passed for the markets to adjust then there is something fundamental that causes them to be stuck at a given level. [citation needed] > Software development is applied autism. [citation needed] > Or to put it another way: there are no other professions that can make 10 million for their employers in an afternoon by thinking really hard. The entire finance industry called and wants to have a word. Not that I'm a fan of theirs, but perhaps you should think harder next time before you post.
  - thrown_22 4y ago
    The financial industry doesn't make money out of bits and bytes. They make money out of other money and lose all of it every 10 years or so. We're seeing it real time today hilariously enough.

tough 4y ago

so how much does an $avgDev make?

avgDev 4y ago
A pretty average number of course.

duped 4y ago

You're paid what it costs for you not to work somewhere else. This is largely decoupled from how much value you create. The only kind of compensation that is correlated to value are sales commissions, which most devs don't make. A lot of us get deluded from the fact that we're highly skilled labor that takes a ton of training and skill sets most people don't have, while at the moment we make products with zero marginal costs. It's not the latter that's as important as the former.

_huayra_ 4y ago
> You're paid what it costs for you not to work somewhere else. This is largely decoupled from how much value you create. I bet quite a number of HNers have liked a given workplace, but done the "job boomerang" where they jumped over to a much higher paying (but less desirable to them) job, only to jump back to their preferred place at much MUCH higher pay. I hate interviewing as much as the next person, but it is the only way to actually get closer to what one is worth. Trying to just save up for when the AI gets so good all of us will be going to FCs like this story /s