[deedubaya]

Developers are highly paid because their knowledge is highly leveraged. Someone else is benefiting from your application of knowledge by an order of magnitude of what they're paying you. Why be the cow when you could be the dairyman?

[phonebanshee]

Because dairy farms go under all the time. These days, the well fed happy cows just stroll over to the next field, where there are massages on tap if the stress of eating grass in the sunshine gets to be too much.

To put that in non-cow terms, the rewards of just getting straightforward compensation these days are really good. So good it's not obvious that starting your own thing is worth it monetarily.

[deedubaya]

Of course there is risk in starting your own venture. It’s not a guarantee of success, but the upside is exponentially greater.

Chasing (relative) peanuts is still a better call for most.

[badpun]

> but the upside is exponentially greater.

See, I don't think most people care if they are millionaires or billionaires. And you can become a millionaire on a software dev salary.

[greenyoda]

> Why be the cow when you could be the dairyman?

Because the cow doesn't need to worry about selling the milk, collecting money from the customers and fixing the roof on the barn?

[deedubaya]

Yup, that’s the hardest part for sure.