I share this impression. I also just… am confused about why anyone would consider a starting salary of $150k/year + healthcare insufficient. I guess maybe if you’re buying a house? Or sending a kid to college? I mean, I live in the Bay and have never made anywhere close to $150k/year, and I am far from financially insecure.
Programmer salaries are insane, and most people (e.g. me) are not programmers, and manage to survive. I just feel like, if your objection is, “Well I’m worth more than that on the free market,” then just… go work somewhere else, if that’s what you care about? Nobody needs a salary of $450k/year!!!
Another EA/rationalist org I’ve worked at had a policy of “We don’t want salary to be a major reason for people to want to work here, and we don’t want it to be a reason for them to not want to work here.” That makes a lot of sense to me, and I think it’s probably what Lightcone is going for?
I don’t know, like, I can sort of see where the other side is coming from. But it also still seems crazy to me.
I guess maybe if you’re buying a house? Or sending a kid to college?
Without taking a side on the overall policy: buying a house and raising children are extremely normal things to do and want to do, and it would be bad if people had to choose between working for Lightcone and doing them, especially if Lightcone could pay them more without affecting other programs. I feel like we in the bay have been frogboiled to the point of not noticing a bunch of sacrifices we make to be here.
I haven’t done the math on what the listed salaries actually produce in terms of lifestyle, I’m not saying these particular salaries actually preclude what I consider reasonable, I’m only claiming that “it’s only low if you want a house and children” is not a good argument that a salary is sufficient.
[Full disclosure: I occasionally contract for LW/LC and benefit from them being freer with worker compensation]
Another EA/rationalist org I’ve worked at had a policy of “We don’t want salary to be a major reason for people to want to work here, and we don’t want it to be a reason for them to not want to work here.” That makes a lot of sense to me, and I think it’s probably what Lightcone is going for?
I think that having a blanket policy of “we aim to underpay you by 30% compared to what you would get on the open market” is making pay a reason to not work there. I don’t disagree that the salaries under discussion are massive, but I would never work for a place that openly brags about underpaying me by 30% as if that’s a moral high ground.
I don’t live on the west coast and can’t speak to how far different salaries go, but the rhetoric and strategy being employed here is a major red flag to me.
I share this impression. I also just… am confused about why anyone would consider a starting salary of $150k/year + healthcare insufficient. I guess maybe if you’re buying a house? Or sending a kid to college? I mean, I live in the Bay and have never made anywhere close to $150k/year, and I am far from financially insecure.
Programmer salaries are insane, and most people (e.g. me) are not programmers, and manage to survive. I just feel like, if your objection is, “Well I’m worth more than that on the free market,” then just… go work somewhere else, if that’s what you care about? Nobody needs a salary of $450k/year!!!
Another EA/rationalist org I’ve worked at had a policy of “We don’t want salary to be a major reason for people to want to work here, and we don’t want it to be a reason for them to not want to work here.” That makes a lot of sense to me, and I think it’s probably what Lightcone is going for?
I don’t know, like, I can sort of see where the other side is coming from. But it also still seems crazy to me.
Without taking a side on the overall policy: buying a house and raising children are extremely normal things to do and want to do, and it would be bad if people had to choose between working for Lightcone and doing them, especially if Lightcone could pay them more without affecting other programs. I feel like we in the bay have been frogboiled to the point of not noticing a bunch of sacrifices we make to be here.
I haven’t done the math on what the listed salaries actually produce in terms of lifestyle, I’m not saying these particular salaries actually preclude what I consider reasonable, I’m only claiming that “it’s only low if you want a house and children” is not a good argument that a salary is sufficient.
[Full disclosure: I occasionally contract for LW/LC and benefit from them being freer with worker compensation]
I think that having a blanket policy of “we aim to underpay you by 30% compared to what you would get on the open market” is making pay a reason to not work there. I don’t disagree that the salaries under discussion are massive, but I would never work for a place that openly brags about underpaying me by 30% as if that’s a moral high ground.
I don’t live on the west coast and can’t speak to how far different salaries go, but the rhetoric and strategy being employed here is a major red flag to me.