Re:2015 Chromebook Pixel
by jerf on Wednesday March 11, 2015 @05:55PM
(#9187661)
$500K/year for a developer is generally unrealistic. (Not that they don't exist, but even if you made it your life goal to obtain one of these jobs you probably still shouldn't count on it.) $100K/year for a developer is very realistic, but keep an eye on the cost-of-living; even in the US that can be anything from upper-middle class lifestyle for an individual to "barely getting by" for a family.
I live in the Midwest and have what in the US would be a sanely priced house that bears some resemblance to its cost-of-construction. I have done business trips to Silicon Valley to developers who are making only modestly more than me, if not the same as me, who are living in houses worth 5 times as much on paper (and in their mortgage payments), and they'll be in there putting in top-of-the-line granite countertops or something that I wouldn't dream of putting in. My theory is that their house is just so gosh darned expensive that the idea of dropping $2K on a new laptop or getting The Very Best Countertops (TM) seems like a drop in the bucket compared to the debt they're already carrying anyhow. While I could certainly afford a $2K laptop, it's certainly enough to make me think twice, thrice, and a fourth time before I bought it (and I tend to come in more in the $1K price range when I do, since I run Linux and not Mac. There's some nice stuff at that price point).
I live in the Midwest and have what in the US would be a sanely priced house that bears some resemblance to its cost-of-construction. I have done business trips to Silicon Valley to developers who are making only modestly more than me, if not the same as me, who are living in houses worth 5 times as much on paper (and in their mortgage payments), and they'll be in there putting in top-of-the-line granite countertops or something that I wouldn't dream of putting in. My theory is that their house is just so gosh darned expensive that the idea of dropping $2K on a new laptop or getting The Very Best Countertops (TM) seems like a drop in the bucket compared to the debt they're already carrying anyhow. While I could certainly afford a $2K laptop, it's certainly enough to make me think twice, thrice, and a fourth time before I bought it (and I tend to come in more in the $1K price range when I do, since I run Linux and not Mac. There's some nice stuff at that price point).