[CmonDev]

It seems that no engineer makes "$500k per year". Stock options don't pay every year. Contracting is too unreliable to guarantee that kind of yearly income as well. It's probably more reasonable to talk about "$5m over the course of ten years".

[etanazir]

$500k salary exclusive of stock options is not unheard of. This type of engineer probably built the mission critical system a company is relying upon.

[sjg007]

One could argue that by definition that mission critical system was not built well. A good engineer should always try to automate (and architect) yourself out of a job. You want software that runs itself.

[CmonDev]

"is not unheard of" vs "probably"?