[gumby]

A lot of folks get into a zone where the money no longer matters, as long as it’s in a range where you don’t have to think about it. Still they might leave simply because they’ve been there a while, or want a change, or want to work with some particular people who are at a different organization.

Not to say that some might be motivated by money, but at that level I would be surprised if it motivated many.

[time_to_smile]

I find this is true for me, but I ultimately don't work for a FAANG because the money isn't that important to me and there are many things about FAANG companies I don't like. However I don't think this generalizes well for people who do aggressively pursue careers at FAANG companies.

My experience has been that most of the people I know that work for FAANG are extremely TC conscious, that's a large part of why they work at a FAANG in the first place and the source of a non-trivial amount of their self worth. If you look around the comments on Blind (a biased source for sure, but certainly a non-zero part of the community) you'll find plenty of people where TC is all that matters.

I interviewed at FB a few years ago and one thing that surprised me when I asked "what's your favorite thing about working here?" I got the same answer from everyone I talked to: the compensation/benefits. I thought for sure the answers would involve working on hard problems at scale, having incredible amounts of data etc. However without fail every interviewer immediately pointed out their comp and other perks as their primary motivator for working there.

In general I would say that people that make a lot of money, make a lot of money because making a lot of money is important to them.

[015a]

This idea that "eventually you make enough where money doesn't matter anymore" is a meme that couldn't be more wrong. Its the kind of thing said by someone who has never made that much money, but who is extrapolating their current relationship with money to a compensation multiples higher; then saying "well if I can live on $X right now, then the Y in $X+Y wouldn't matter, so money must not matter (past some level) (and, coincidentally, that level is always somewhere around what I make) (weird how it always works out like that, right?)".

You can say that it shouldn't matter; that a $200k salary decrease to someone making seven figures shouldn't matter, because they're rich and they can take it. Maybe that's a correct assertion; that it shouldn't matter. But: it does.

Money always matters. Money always matters. Money always matters.

[kakwa_]

Well, personally, I'm in a situation where I struggle to spend more than half of what I earn, including my mortgage repayment.

I'm not a cheap person, if I need to spend money on something, I will. It's just that my life style and affinities mean I'm not spending much.

I'm not much of a fashion guy, so no huge collection of expensive clothes.

Nor am I a car guy (I don't even currently own one, and if I were to have one again in the future, it would simply be a tool).

When I travel, the destination is often decided at the last moment, and I'm more of a backpack kind of guy.

When I buying something somewhat expensive (price ~$1000 or more), I'm always evaluating the usefulness of the thing, for example, I kind of want to replace my folk guitar but in fairness, I rarely play my current one, and it's not like this will change with a nicer one (I also have two very nice electric guitars I've not touched in years).

Simply put, partly out of how I was brought-up, partly out of some ecological-consciousness, I do not buy something simply because I can.

Also, regarding this part:

> Its the kind of thing said by someone who has never made that much money

When I make this statement, opposition comes far more often from people "who have never made that much money". My friends with similar or greater earnings get my point of view, even if they don't have the same views, but my friends with lower incomes generally strongly disagree with this kind of view.

[BeetleB]

> Money always matters. Money always matters. Money always matters

Except when it doesn't.

A Principal Engineer at my company, could easily increase his salary 20-50% by moving to a FAANG, and can do Leetcode problems in his head, doesn't move. Because he has more independence here and can work on more interesting problems here.

He grew up in relative poverty. He already gets paid a lot. It's enough for him.

[hnaccount_rng]

Well that's not true... at least not for me. I'm not even at the point of earning excessive amounts of money (research scientist at a german university E13, so about 60kEur). And already now I don't care enough about money to have it influence where I'm thinking about applying...

[MrMan]

I went for years not thinking about money, not negotiating or worrying about comp, and making enough that I didn't need to worry or think about it, I just wrote code and did research. It is definitely a thing

[wenc]

I think this is to some extent personality-dependent and not as universal as you posit.

I somewhat fall into the demographic you describe but find myself not really caring about maximizing TC because I’m working on interesting and meaningful problems. (I would never be interested in working on adtech or infosec even for double my pay — I’m just not interested in those areas.)

I have met many in tech whose game is maximizing TC. They’re very vocal but I don’t know if they represent everyone.

[chaostheory]

For Silicon Valley, especially in Silicon Valley, this mindset doesn’t always hold true. It’s one of the quirks of the region and the people there.

[gumby]

Until the dot com era money really wasn’t much of a “thing” here (SV), and you’re right: even now it’s more of an SF thing, but has infected the Valley too.

[imtringued]

I don't really care. I only need money to meet certain goals, that's all. The money obsessed me is long dead.

[nautilius]

Not true for me either.

[thebean11]

I'm not sure, I can't imagine feeling that way. The jump from $500k to $650k, or 1mil to 1.2mil, would still feel pretty significant, in terms of cash hitting your bank account.

[gumby]

Honestly, many many people feel that way. I have been there most of my working life.

When you don’t make enough to make ends meet, or to do so comfortably, sure, fixing that situation is going to be very important to you.

But once you have what you need to live the life you want, why not simply live the life you want? One of my closest friends has been at google for almost 20 years. He doesn’t want to be promoted because he likes his job and his coworkers.

OTOH if money is your thing, that’s OK too.

[mywittyname]

Depending on levels of investment, those amounts are close to month-to-month portfolio variance.

[thebean11]

Sure, in my mind those wouldn't connect though.

[bitcharmer]

I don't think this is correct. I'm lucky enough to be on a level where turning down a 100k increase in salary is something that I have to routinely do because my current job ticks so many boxes and I genuinely love it and don't have to risk it for that amount.

[thebean11]

I'm not saying these people wouldn't take a six figure pay cut for a job they like better. Just saying a six figure increase can still be pretty significant and material.