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0 pointssokoloff7y ago0 comments

If you believe that developers are within a factor of 33% of productivity (defined notionally as “value created per week”), then there is excessive skew in the numbers you propose.

I believe the productivity figures are at least a factor of 2, and probably a tail out to a factor of 10 or more versus the median developer (and then a left-going distribution under the median where a substaintial number of developers do not create any value at all). Under that set of beliefs, 20% making ~$150K and 80% making ~$200K is actually insufficient skew vs a “fair” system.

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wsy7y ago

I wrote this in the context of the article, where a Google developer with 33% more productivity would already have progressed to the next role level. At least, that is what I would assume for large companies.

sokoloffOP7y ago

Promotion is not centered primarily around productivity, at least not beyond SWE2 or whatever the second engineering level is in a given company. Ability to lead/influence at a scope larger than self is largely disjoint from individual productivity in coding.

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wsy7y ago

sokoloffOP7y ago

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