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A comment on Why Lichess will always be free. Parent comment

Re:Why Lichess will always be free by acatton on Friday April 23, 2021 @05:26AM (#26912751)
> It might sound weirdly low for someone in IT in the USA, but first, not everyone commands FAANG sales, and second, wages in the EU are comparatively low. With some seniority, you can rise to $100k relatively easily, but you have to sell your soul to either some consulting company or old Fortune-500 industries.

Exactly.

The non profit is registered in a small town of Maine-et-Loire.[1] Assuming this is close to where the developer lives, €42k goes a long way there. You also have to factor in that he doesn't have to take the Parisian Metro every morning and live in a tiny apartment for €1,000/month.

[1] See the "Is Lichess a non profit?" https://lichess.org/patron

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Re:Why Lichess will always be free by hocuspocus on Friday April 23, 2021 @07:41AM (#26913673)
> €42k

Note that a competent full-stack Scala developer like Thibault can easily make €70-80k at a French company while working mostly/fully remote. And even more so going into contracting and/or working for foreign clients.

He has his own reasons, working on his own thing being a huge one obviously, but he could definitely make more and keep a similar lifestyle.

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Re:Why Lichess will always be free by robocat on Friday April 23, 2021 @12:03PM (#26916135)
The $56k/€42k is before tax [π].

Personally I would struggle to pay for a house, support dependants, and save for retirement on that amount. Partially because I went back to $zero in my thirties (although I know plenty of people in the same category much older... Trying to catch up is hard mode).

[π] https://old.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/mpasyl/i_started_lic...

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