Why Coder Pay Isn't Proportional To Productivity

theodp writes "John D. Cook takes a stab at explaining why programmers are not paid in proportion to their productivity. The basic problem, Cook explains, is that extreme programmer productivity may not be obvious. A salesman who sells 10x as much as his peers will be noticed, and compensated accordingly. And if a bricklayer were 10x more productive than his peers, this would be obvious too (it doesn't happen). But the best programmers do not write 10x as many lines of code; nor do they work 10x as many hours. Programmers are most effective when they avoid writing code. An über-programmer, Cook explains, is likely to be someone who stares quietly into space and then says 'Hmm. I think I've seen something like this before.'"

Comments

Great Article!

[SparafucileMan]

Oh, wait, it wasn't an article. It was a 2 paragraph blog post that someone crapped out with some random anecdote and zero facts, figures, or research.

I don't know why /. still surprises me with this.

Re:As always, make yourself known

[aicrules]

Better yet, even if there was, it's great that there isn't now. Max/min wage laws are complete BS.

Re:And that is why he fails

[Surt]

I don't know what area you live in, but the poor in this country (USA) do not typically own refrigerators. A lot of them don't have electric power. There are millions of under fed children.