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A price is too high if the buyer can find the same thing (another programmer considered to be an equal hire, in this case; people are not commodities so this can be difficult to evaluate with absolute accuracy) for less. A price is too low if the buyer cannot find the same thing for even an equal amount.
The price is just right, at that moment in time, if there is a mutual agreement between a buyer and a seller.
Programmers are worth $0 because programming isn't a job. It's not even a skill; rather, it's more of an active literacy. Asking how much you should pay a programmer is like asking how much you should pay a telephone user, or how much you should pay a pencil user.
Anything has value as long as someone is willing to pay for that. Simple as that.
Is a Van Gogh painting worth 50-100 million dollars? It is if someone pays that much for it.
Nothing more. Nothing less.
If you think programmers are worth $0, then that's your prerogative.
However you must surely be typing these comments in a computer programmed by yourself, using an OS and reading it in a browser you wrote from scratch, otherwise why pay money (that ultimately will arrive at the pockets of the programmers) for something that is worth $0?
But there's a pretty simple rule in a competitive market: prices are set by the next highest bidder.
Programmers are worth $0 because programming isn't a job. It's not even a skill; rather, it's more of an active literacy. Asking how much you should pay a programmer is like asking how much you should pay a telephone user, or how much you should pay a pencil user.
> Programmers are worth $0 because programming isn't a job. Programming absolutely is a job. Its a thing people pay people to do for them. > It's not even a skill; Its absolutely a skill. > rather, it's more of an active literacy. Literacy is a skill. It becomes less of a notable skill when its common enough (near universal) in society, fading into the background. But programming absolutely isn't that common of a ski…
Programmers are worth $0 because programming isn't a job. It's not even a skill; rather, it's more of an active literacy. Asking how much you should pay a programmer is like asking how much you should pay a telephone user, or how much you should pay a pencil user.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Technical writers, human language translators, lawyers, and many other professions are primarily about "active literacy" as much or moreso than software developers. Do you feel they are all worth $0 too, or just programmers?
The screenplay for The Hunger Games has value. A shopping list also has value. However, their values are very different. Sure, each was created by a pencil user. But they don't actually have anything in common, so asking how much money pencil users 'should' make doesn't even make sense as a question.
You are saying that a pencil user isn't worth anything, but you also recognize that a pencil user can write a script. You feel that it is the script which has value, and not the pencil user. So I suppose you're saying the programmer isn't worth anything, but the program is worth something.
That's one lens to view things, but it's also a gimped on its own. One should have multiple lens.
Programmers are worth $0 because programming isn't a job. It's not even a skill; rather, it's more of an active literacy. Asking how much you should pay a programmer is like asking how much you should pay a telephone user, or how much you should pay a pencil user.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Programmers are worth $0 because programming isn't a job. Programming absolutely is a job. Its a thing people pay people to do for them. > It's not even a skill; Its absolutely a skill. > rather, it's more of an active literacy. Literacy is a skill. It becomes less of a notable skill when its common enough (near universal) in society, fading into the background. But programming absolutely isn't that common of a ski…
If I've got five years' experience writing, say, front-end JavaScript, I can reasonably call myself a programmer. A company that wants to develop software in C for embedded microcontrollers might reasonably advertise for a programmer. But my value to that company is approximately $0, because I can't (in a reasonable time frame) do the things they want done.
But it's not like there's much dispute that being a translator is a job.
Programmers are worth $0 because programming isn't a job. It's not even a skill; rather, it's more of an active literacy. Asking how much you should pay a programmer is like asking how much you should pay a telephone user, or how much you should pay a pencil user.
How did this guy get into YC with his startup? Hands down troll of the year with this comment.