[jkhaui]

C'mon, let's be real... most devs are working on features/products that will never see the light of day. Or they're restyling the company's "contact us" form for the thousandth time.

The market is not efficient. A software developer being paid $100k doesn't mean they're providing the world with $100k of value. it just means they convinced management/HR to pay them $100k for turning up 250/365 days.

I suggest checking out "bullshit jobs" by David Graeber :)

[tyrust]

Sure, people don't always ship. Companies and investors pay to throw things at the wall and see what sticks. It doesn't all stick, but if they threw nothing, nothing would.

The individual may not provide 100k, but N developers probably provide (at least) 100Nk value. That or the market is very broken.

As an aside, you and the parent both say "most", which I would doubt but is difficult to prove either way.

[erklik]

> it just means they convinced management/HR to pay them $100k for turning up 250/365 days.

I mean isn't value based on what you can convince someone else to pay for the service/product. Are Mac's really valued at 10 grand or whatever, but rather simply what they've convinced someone to pay for that.

Also, isn't that the same for plumbers for example? Plumbers being paid around $150/hr (this is what is the going rate for a good plumber in Australia) are providing the world with $150/hr of value. It just means that they convinced the customer to pay them $150/hr for turning up to their house and taking a look at a leaky tap, one that could be fixed in about 5 mins.

[marcinzm]

And most plumbers are fixing clogs that a five year old with a rooter could fix thus providing no real value. See what I did there?