[invalidOrTaken]

I think a big part of the problem is insufficient agency on both sides of the equation.

I was talking to a potential client today and he told me that he'd been considering hiring an engineer with a strong "official" background (Cisco, etc), who had billed himself at $100/hr.

"I don't think I can afford that," my friend said.

The next day the engineer messaged him saying he'd cut his rate to $50/hr.

In other words: No one has any idea what they're doing. It's still very much the Wild West. The in-demand currency, I've concluded, is security. If you're funded to the point of not worrying about payroll: engineers will flock to you. If you're battle-tested in scaling something huge: terrified founders will follow you around.

The critical skill, IMO, is finding entities who could be great, with your help. One of FAANG's strengths is that they pay their devs so well that they can stop worrying about money, and feel safe enough to get absorbed in whatever problem is on their plate.

[BjoernKW]

If neither the engineer in question knows if his service is worth $50 or $100 dollars an hour nor the client (i.e. the employeer) has any idea of if the service might be worth that price how can we expect the market to settle for a a price both parties can agree on?

The underlying problem is that the value of software development is hard to quantify and that professionals in that area often even try to keep it that way.

Why is engineering output commonly measured in time wasted instead of value created?

[invalidOrTaken]

Well, it's funny, after writing that comment, I'm not really sure I still regard the situation as a "problem." For the distributed systems guru with a proven track record, the world is his oyster. What problem?

PG's advice that basically reduces to "fundraising sucks" rings true to me, but I suspect that someone really good at it would also find a lot of opportunities falling into their lap.

I guess my general train of thought is: most engineers treat the business side as consisting solely of downside---they want to "get fucked as little as possible" and then seek their upside in engineering. But there's opportunity there for those who look for it.