The strategy hasn't changed. "Pay high salaries" doesn't happen in a vacuum. They only ever paid a small premium above the next best offer the workers had, and

The strategy hasn't changed. "Pay high salaries" doesn't happen in a vacuum. They only ever paid a small premium above the next best offer the workers had, and the second best offer only ever paid a small premium over the third best offer, and so on down the line. Google is still paying comparatively high salaries to get the best talent, but, thanks to the proliferation of developers, everyone else doesn't have to fight over the scraps anymore. There is enough to go around for everyone. As such, "mom and pop" don't have to pay as much to the not-so-great talent, which means the premiums found by the time you get al the way up to Google are starting from a much lower baseline.