> it's on you to come up with evidence supporting this supposed (much) higher marginal value.
There's no more onus on me to prove a higher marginal value than there is on you to prove a lower one. You've attempted to shift the burden of proof by arbitrarily deciding that your assumption is the correct one.
I will say that most of the people I've read trying to determine the marginal value of software engineers, think that it's a good deal higher than what you seem to think it is. When you consider that there are outliers who will make or save companies tens of millions and not very many who are going to have very large negative impacts, the average is going to trend pretty high.
>Everything I've seen points to a real shortage and desperation on the part of the employers: interns making six figures with free Manhattan penthouses, nonstop recruiter spam, 22-year-olds negotiating stock packages on their 8 fulltime offers before they finish school, fresh grads buying Teslas with signing bonuses before their first day of work, countless job listings that never ever go away, $10k+ referral bonuses, websites where employers apply to you...
None of that is at all even remotely normal. The vast majority of software engineers don't experience anything like that.
None of the people you're talking about are close to average. Average programmers don't pass Google style interviews. I went to a fairly average state school, and I've done a lot of tutoring and interview prep. I'd be shocked if 1% of the students I graduated with could pass a Google interview.
It's hardly shocking that the top 1% of engineers are making large salaries. Top law firms start associates out at $200k a year, do you think there's a shortage of lawyers?
If there really was a shortage, Google and other companies would relax their interview processes, and invest more in training.
If anything, the real problem is that everyone thinks they need to hire the top 1%, but they don't want to pay for it.
$150k in silicon valley is equivalent to about $90k a year where I live, so I'm not interested in moving. If someone there offered me $300k, I'd go in a heartbeat.
