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A comment on The problem with being a top performer (2017). Parent comment

Re:The problem with being a top performer (2017) by ozim on Thursday April 16, 2020 @05:07PM (#22893567)
I would like to call out bs on premise where in physical labor one cannot be orders of magnitude more productive than the average worker. That somehow only in software it is possible.

Playing football, what is so hard about it, you just run and kick the ball right? Then why some players are orders of magnitude better than the others?

Even stocking shelves can be optimized if you would like, I bet I could stock shelves after some optimization 10x or 100x faster than average workers. (as a student I was working stacking shelves)

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Re:The problem with being a top performer (2017) by enitihas on Thursday April 16, 2020 @05:39PM (#22893845)
Football players are already compensated on a vastly unequal scale, much more than software, since the difference between a messi and a b league player might be more than anywhere found in programmers. Also football is a creative labor, as every moment poses a problem which is unique, and you have to solve it in real time.

If you or anyone can stock shelves 100x faster, and the skill wasn’t copiable easily, they would for sure earn a lot more than the average worker. Hell, they can patent it and earn royalties.

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