Is developer compensation becoming bimodal?
To the puzzle about developer comp outstripping EE or other engineering disciplines pay (ie Civil Engineering god help me), I agree that the student in those fields could apply themselves to become able programmers. So why the huge disparity in pay?<p>I have two ideas:<p>1. Lots of technically able people still don’t enjoy plugging their mind into a machine. Its probably hard to believe in the HN community but many people don’t enjoy the work, I’ve met a few. Maybe its too abstract or boring, its a mystery to me.<p>2. What multiple is the market putting on the ‘tech industry’ vs semiconductors or mineral extraction? We can actually look that up. AMZN 220; MSFT 69; FB 33; SOXX 4.7; XOM 25.  Investors are paying more to fund the work of programmers than most other industries.