Agreed. I kinda wish the FAANGs paid less, and had to appeal to people solely on positive impact, kinds of work people can do, work environment and how people are treated, etc. Adding "oh yeah, and you make more money here" complicates.

The big G, for example, already seemed like the place to go, as soon as they launched the early site (the company was obviously smarter than most of what was going on), and there was also the "don't be evil" that resonated with a lot of the prevailing sentiment among the pre-Web Internet-savvy techies. Though I suppose there might've already been a money factor from the start (it seemed like most people were crunching hard at work, but also prone to job-hopping for the hottest IPO lottery ticket at the moment), but it wasn't as clear as today.