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> a random person on HN You make a lot of assumptions about whom your talking to.

scarface_74 3y ago
Unless one of the foremost experts in AI (the subject of the post) is grinding away at a non profit making one fourth of the average comp at Amazon (which is nowhere near what you say it is), he isn’t going to be getting an offer of $900K a year at Amazon
- frognumber 3y ago
  "Grinding away" or "having the time of his life?" Life is short. If you are spending half of your waking hours in a job, it might as well be fun, meaningful, and helping the world. If it pays the bills, and it's what you'd be doing if you were independently wealthy anyways, why not skip the "independently wealthy" step if someone is glad to pay you to do it? That saves a few years of your life. I am doing _exactly_ what I'd be doing with my life if I had a few million dollars in the bank and could spend my life however I liked. Indeed, having a sponsor opens doors and provides support for it. And the BATNA, if my employer were to ask me to do something I don't want to do, is to become independently wealthy at a FAANG. As a footnote, seven-figure salaries at FAANG are common for world-class experts in many fields (not just in AI, although that's where they're the most common).
  - scarface_74 3y ago
    Are you a “world class expert” in a field that Amazon prioritizes?
    - frognumber 3y ago
      I don't think this conversation has any point anymore, and it's quickly becoming more personal then conversations I typically try to get into online. There used to be a cartoon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Internet%2C_nobody_knows_you're_a_dog https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Internet%2C_nobody_know... You can take what I say at face value, or you can decide I'm a liar. It's up to you. I'm checking out.
      - scarface_74 3y ago
        I’m not getting personal, your thoughts about how much you could get at Amazon based on some outliers is probably not realistic even if you’re well known. The canonical example one was that the creator and maintainer of homebrew couldn’t get a job at Google even though most of the developers used his code everyday. More than likely as an L5 you’re going to get an offer around the mid 200s at an L6 you’re going to get around a 350K. And it doesn’t matter how good of a developer you are if you haven’t done or practiced a coding interview or system design interview. You won’t get to an L6 unless you show that you have worked and shown “scope” and “impact”.

Unless one of the foremost experts in AI (the subject of the post) is grinding away at a non profit making one fourth of the average comp at Amazon (which is nowhere near what you say it is), he isn’t going to be getting an offer of $900K a year at Amazon

frognumber 3y ago
"Grinding away" or "having the time of his life?" Life is short. If you are spending half of your waking hours in a job, it might as well be fun, meaningful, and helping the world. If it pays the bills, and it's what you'd be doing if you were independently wealthy anyways, why not skip the "independently wealthy" step if someone is glad to pay you to do it? That saves a few years of your life. I am doing _exactly_ what I'd be doing with my life if I had a few million dollars in the bank and could spend my life however I liked. Indeed, having a sponsor opens doors and provides support for it. And the BATNA, if my employer were to ask me to do something I don't want to do, is to become independently wealthy at a FAANG. As a footnote, seven-figure salaries at FAANG are common for world-class experts in many fields (not just in AI, although that's where they're the most common).
- scarface_74 3y ago
  Are you a “world class expert” in a field that Amazon prioritizes?
  - frognumber 3y ago
    I don't think this conversation has any point anymore, and it's quickly becoming more personal then conversations I typically try to get into online. There used to be a cartoon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Internet%2C_nobody_knows_you're_a_dog https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Internet%2C_nobody_know... You can take what I say at face value, or you can decide I'm a liar. It's up to you. I'm checking out.
    - scarface_74 3y ago
      I’m not getting personal, your thoughts about how much you could get at Amazon based on some outliers is probably not realistic even if you’re well known. The canonical example one was that the creator and maintainer of homebrew couldn’t get a job at Google even though most of the developers used his code everyday. More than likely as an L5 you’re going to get an offer around the mid 200s at an L6 you’re going to get around a 350K. And it doesn’t matter how good of a developer you are if you haven’t done or practiced a coding interview or system design interview. You won’t get to an L6 unless you show that you have worked and shown “scope” and “impact”.