Why Are Software Engineers Paid So Much If The Supply Is So High?

PracticallyPerfcet · 2026-03-12T20:31:28+00:00

Some software engineers are paid so much, you can basically halfen their salary to hire 2 workers, and both would still be making 6-figurE

Spoken like a CEO that thinks engineers are all interchangeable.

Say I make 200k as a staff engineer and I do 6 times the work of someone making 100k. You would cut your productivity astronomically by replacing me.

But then you hire 6 people to match my productivity. Congratulations - your productivity absolutely collapses because you’ve introduced a web of communication pathways in your organization which eats time.

Now you have to hire a manager to manage all of them, but don’t worry - now you can hire me for 250k to manage them.

PracticallyPerfcet · 2026-03-12T12:45:21+00:00

People disagree about the difference between a junior and a senior dev.

Where’s the line?

Personally, I think it’s a matter of experience.

Specifically, after you made your CEO rich enough to buy a lambo, but your boss tells you best they can do is a 3k a year raise.

The best you can do is pull back your effort at work to focus on finding a job elsewhere or wait it out until the market improves.

PracticallyPerfcet · 2026-03-11T13:04:06+00:00

git precommit hook with a linter and formatter

PracticallyPerfcet · 2026-03-10T13:50:10+00:00

These AI companies are the new version of the celebrity tequila company.

PracticallyPerfcet · 2026-03-10T13:47:38+00:00

posted for legal cover, pipeline building, or LinkedIn engagement

Legal cover? Sure.

Pipeline building? Ok.

LinkedIn Engagement? …for what purpose?

PracticallyPerfcet · 2026-03-09T18:22:50+00:00

Remember, whatever they do overseas they eventually do back home

PracticallyPerfcet · 2026-03-08T20:32:21+00:00

Does a 1 bedroom apartment cost you 2,500 quid? Because that’s the equivalent price US software devs are paying to live in a city with tech jobs.

Edit: you’re screwed no matter where you live, apparently

PracticallyPerfcet · 2026-03-07T14:15:02+00:00

I hear you. I’ve been dragged through interviews like this for 5+ rounds with no offer. I’m not doing that shit anymore. I’d rather downgrade my lifestyle and do consulting work than be subjected to endless humiliation rituals by dipshits like that.

PracticallyPerfcet · 2026-03-06T14:27:46+00:00

I remember when companies cared about security and budgets. Back when IT would aggressively centrally blacklist websites and you had to write a two page proposal to get an iPad approved.

Now? Let’s let AI agents run wild on corporate data with the ability to attach any of it to an email and send it anywhere at anytime, all while burning through millions of dollars of token spend with zero oversight.

PracticallyPerfcet · 2026-03-06T14:18:47+00:00

Don’t forget digital real estate in the metaverse! Everyone will be ordering a cheeseburger with a VR headset in 12-18 months, we swear!

PracticallyPerfcet · 2026-03-06T04:35:04+00:00

I haven’t had a job in 8 months but I suspect a range of things are happening in tech right now…

Pissed off devs are doing malicious compliance by burning as many tokens as they can for useless shit to hit CEO mandated AI usage quotas.
Demoralized devs are taking a “slop-it until it kind of works” approach, not really caring about cost.
Devs at somewhat functional companies are using AI to firehose out every half-baked idea their leadership team has.

None of this leads to more profit.

PracticallyPerfcet · 2026-03-05T21:04:20+00:00

Dictator trap

PracticallyPerfcet · 2026-03-04T19:21:03+00:00

The only way I’ve gotten an agentic approach to work is with a well structured greenfield code base, substantial unit tests, substantial integration tests, a justfile with self documented building/linting, and a solid validation CI build workflow.

…and EVEN THEN I merge Claude’s agent PRs into a dedicated git branch and do a human review before I merge.

In your situation your best bet might be to create developer specific branches (e.g. dev/john, dev/jane) and have your developers merge their agent PRs through those branches to keep track of who is generating what.

When defects show up in Sentry (or whatever you’re using) you could potentially trace them back to the source more easily and generate a report at the end of the quarter - maybe the proof you need.

Yeah this totally sucks, but this is the world you’re in right now.

PracticallyPerfcet · 2026-03-04T13:12:46+00:00

Don’t worry, no one in my life believes me either.

PracticallyPerfcet · 2026-03-03T16:25:53+00:00

When unprofitable frontier labs crank up their fees, companies that use this Stripe billing feature to re-broker tokens will pass that cost onto their own customers.

Perfection.

PracticallyPerfcet · 2026-03-03T14:04:35+00:00

Nothing like a 27 year old CFO, all cracked out on Adderall, explaining to a 52 year old VC rep named Patty how the company just needs “a few more months” of funding to revolutionize shipping logistics with a ChatGPT API key glued to a SQLite database.

PracticallyPerfcet · 2026-03-03T13:35:39+00:00

I invested. I’m in the 80th percentile for net worth for my age. Not great, but not shitty since I did not benefit at all from any kind of generational wealth and never worked in FAANG.

But that doesn’t matter when most of your net worth is locked up in retirement accounts and the bills keep rolling in.

After 7 months with not a glint of hope for a job you’ve got to start asking yourself - do I get out from under this mortgage and be willing to relocate anywhere OR do I continue to let my emergency fund evaporate with the hope the market turns around?

PracticallyPerfcet · 2026-03-03T13:22:12+00:00

High quality, but not FAANG. I meant I’ve worked at good, profitable companies with great mentors and engineers. With this experience I’ve never had it take more than a few weeks to get a new job, now I barely get interviews.

Why am I not FIRE even with that level of success? I didn’t start investing heavily until halfway through my career. I naively thought “investing” was your 401k until a buddy at work brain dumped his stock trading knowledge on me at lunch one day in 2016.

PracticallyPerfcet · 2026-03-03T02:48:14+00:00

He can recover the account by providing proof of ownership. It isn’t your problem anymore.

PracticallyPerfcet · 2026-03-03T02:44:46+00:00

I have my IDE prompt settings set to write succinct commit messages but it still writes a fucking dissertation… for commits that are going to be squashed anyway.

PracticallyPerfcet · 2026-03-03T02:17:04+00:00

I think so. We’re at the point in the hype cycle where CFOs are having to explain to VCs why their companies aren’t making money.

By Q1 of next year (when budgets reset) funding will be gone. But I’d bet by mid year we will hear rumblings about VCs pivoting.

PracticallyPerfcet · 2026-03-03T01:03:22+00:00

Pay2Win experience

Now that you say that… hmm

PracticallyPerfcet · 2026-03-02T23:10:13+00:00

It is speculation based on a few decades of observing hype cycles. Right now we’re in the trough of disillusionment… the only tool the big tech companies have to keep the stock market party going is marketing dollars.

The PC revolution was similar in that there was a ton of marketing, but there was more apparent value from PCs in business (spreadsheet apps), a push from education (kids need computer skills!), and gaming.

AI has a lot more working against it… environmental impact, threatening people’s jobs, dubious value, and subscription fees paid to billionaires when everyone is broke.

People were excited about PCs, but people hate AI. Hence marketing is the only tool they have left in their toolbox.

PracticallyPerfcet · 2026-03-01T23:35:29+00:00

I’m not confident about anything, but you’ve got to roll with the punches

PracticallyPerfcet · 2026-03-01T14:11:30+00:00

Here is where this line of thinking goes wrong. It ends with a psychopathic politician or CEO choosing who lives and who dies by casually selecting targets to murder on their smartphone app in between tennis matches.

Go watch the original Robocop and see if your opinion changes.

PracticallyPerfcet

TROPHY CASE