2018-02-23 18:58:03 +00:00
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---
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created_at: '2011-11-16T11:59:24.000Z'
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title: Why programmers are not paid in proportion to their productivity (2009)
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url: http://www.johndcook.com/blog/2009/12/23/why-programmers-are-not-paid-in-proportion-to-their-productivity
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author: ColinWright
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points: 122
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story_text: ''
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comment_text:
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num_comments: 77
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story_id:
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story_title:
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story_url:
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parent_id:
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created_at_i: 1321444764
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_tags:
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- story
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- author_ColinWright
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- story_3242772
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objectID: '3242772'
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2018-06-08 12:05:27 +00:00
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year: 2009
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2018-02-23 18:58:03 +00:00
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---
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2018-03-03 09:35:28 +00:00
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The most productive programmers are orders of magnitude more productive
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than average programmers. But salaries usually fall within a fairly
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small range in any company. Even across the entire profession, salaries
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don’t vary that much. If some programmers are 10x more productive than
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others, why aren’t they paid 10x as much?
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2018-02-23 18:19:40 +00:00
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2018-03-03 09:35:28 +00:00
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Joel Spolsky gave a couple answers to this question in his most recent
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[podcast](http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail4328.html).
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First, programmer productivity varies tremendously across the
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profession, but it may not vary so much within a given company. Someone
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who is 10x more productive than his colleagues is likely to leave,
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either to work with other very talented programmers or to start his own
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business. Second, extreme productivity may not be obvious. This post
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elaborates on this second reason.
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2018-02-23 18:19:40 +00:00
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2018-03-03 09:35:28 +00:00
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How can someone be 10x more productive than his peers without being
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noticed? In some professions such a difference would be obvious. A
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salesman who sells 10x as much as his peers will be noticed, and
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compensated accordingly. Sales are easy to measure, and some salesmen
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make orders of magnitude more money than others. If a bricklayer were
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10x more productive than his peers this would be obvious too, but it
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doesn’t happen: the best bricklayers cannot lay 10x as much brick as
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average bricklayers. Software output cannot be measured as easily as
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dollars or bricks. The best programmers do not necessarily write 10x as
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many lines of code and they certainly do not work 10x longer hours.
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2018-02-23 18:19:40 +00:00
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2018-03-03 09:35:28 +00:00
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Programmers are most effective when they avoid writing code. They may
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realize the problem they’re being asked to solve doesn’t need to be
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solved, that the client doesn’t actually want what they’re asking for.
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They may know where to find reusable or
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[re-editable](//www.johndcook.com/blog/2008/05/03/reusable-code-vs-re-editable-code/)
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code that solves their problem. They may
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[cheat](//www.johndcook.com/blog/2009/03/24/redbelt-problem-solving/).
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But just when they are being their most productive, nobody says “Wow\!
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You were just 100x more productive than if you’d done this the hard way.
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You deserve a raise.” At best they say “Good idea\!” and go on. It may
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take a while to realize that someone routinely comes up with such
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time-saving insights. Or to put it negatively, it may take a long time
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to realize that others are programming with sound and fury but producing
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nothing.
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The romantic image of an über-programmer is someone who fires up
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[Emacs](//www.johndcook.com/blog/2008/04/27/one-program-to-rule-them-all/),
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types like a machine gun, and delivers a flawless final product from
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scratch. A more accurate image would be someone who stares quietly into
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space for a few minutes and then says “Hmm. I think I’ve seen something
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like this before.”
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**Related posts**:
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