| > knowledge workers are so grossly overpaid compared to the energy they consume Less so energy and moreso there is a perception that a large amount of tech workers are significantly overpaid compared to their output. Why does a SWE in Cary deserve to be paid the same as a SWE in San Jose? Why does a SWE in San Jose deserve to be paid more than a SWE in Cary? That said, there is also the confounding factor of the Twitter/X layoffs (60-70% of headcount was slashed yet the platform remained engineering functional) as well as the infamous story of Uber's three competing internal Slack knockoffs and their associated engineering teams which highlighted the very real issue of the bloat that grew in the tech industry. > This explains why the Chinese are giving the (much more moderate resources to train) models away for free That isn't why. In fact, CCP leadership has often evoked Solow's paradox when thinking about AI [0] and push back against AI Maximalism/AGI [1]. Most of the conversation about AI in China is around capability enhancements as well as providing a monetization pathway for BigFund I and II investments, as can be seen with the $295B data center buildout being pushed by the Chinese government [2]. On the OSS side, is a good writeup in The Economist from 2025 that explains China's open source strategy [3]. [0] - https://m.huxiu.com/article/4780003.html [1] - https://www.zaobao.com.sg/news/china/story20250829-7432514 [2] - https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-prepares-295-billi... [3] - https://www.economist.com/business/2025/06/17/why-china-is-g... |