"Good programmers are up to 30 times better than mediocre programmers, according to "individual differences" research. Given that their pay is never commensurate ..."
Why is this a given? What are the forces which prevent the pay getting commensurate with ability? Is this unique to programming profession, or is this widely observed in other fields too?
How many run of the mill $50k average-or-less developers or programmers do you know?
Now, how many $500,000 programmers do you know? Outside finserv quants & algos, not many. But THEY can make millions and tens of millions.
Unfortunately our industry tends to grant incremental compensation increases against geometric performance & value increases. Which is true in a lot of engineering fields. And the same can probably be said in design fields as well.
Why is this a given? What are the forces which prevent the pay getting commensurate with ability? Is this unique to programming profession, or is this widely observed in other fields too?