Dion Dokterdiondokter@fosstodon.org
Aug 21, 2026, 4:29 PM@whitequark I feel like number 2 is more of a USA thing. At least in The Netherlands I don't feel like devs have ever been 'special'. Not intellectually, nor compensation-wise, nor culturally
Replies
amarioguyamarioguy@treehouse.systemsAug 23, 2026, 5:30 PM@diondokter @whitequark personally i suspect 1 is much more US-centric a point than either 2 or 3, (personally i'm a mix of 1 and 3 here)
remember that there are a very large number of professions in the US that absolutely do not pay people enough (yes, even though these professions are often quite critical and beneficial to society in many ways! it's horrific how underpaid many of the critical jobs aren't paid nearly enough for how much they hold society together) and tech is one of the vanishingly few spaces in the US that actually pays anything remotely resembling a reasonable pay these days
- Dion Dokterdiondokter@fosstodon.orgAug 23, 2026, 5:49 PM
> anything remotely resembling a reasonable pay
Ha well... IMO that's an understatement. There's plenty of juniors that out earn me (PPP) in the US. Like, I'm seeing ~$160k total comp for Uber in the lowest Software Engineer I role. (More than the median of 141K in SF)
And I mean, good for them. The higher the wages there, the more competitive I am.
You are right that falling back to more normal jobs hurts more if you fall from up high.