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Poll: How much do you make as a programmer?

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Poll: How much do you make as a programmer?

#61

Post by cletus »

dev_jim wrote: post #49
cletus wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you think San Francisco rents are expensive I suggest you don't move to Manhattan. I live in a (true) one bedroom second-storey walkup in Chelsea, which actually has a new kitchen and bathroom (renovations made after the last tenant left to get it out of rent stabilization) and pay $2,000 a month for it. And that actually seems to be a pretty good deal. For a decent building (one with an elevator where you don't h…

Please tell me how you found a renovated walk-up 1BR in Chelsea for $2k :)

A good broker is worth their exorbitant fee.

The way I see it a broker should be doing one of two things (or preferably both):

1. Saving you time in finding an apartment; and/or

2. Saving you money.

It took two afternoons (in January this year) to find this apartment. When I saw it was being renovated so I had no idea what it would look like but it was a decent size (~500 sqft), on a nice street off 8th Avenue and only up one flight on stairs so I took it on the spot and was happy with how it worked out.

But I spoke to three brokers. One was useless and showed me things I could've found myself. This is particularly true of the larger buildings in, say, Midtown West, where you just inquire with the front desk about vacancies. But this apartment I found before it had shown up on the managing agent's website.

Looking in winter helps too (apparently).

The noise thing bothers me slightly. Like the codger below me likes to bang on the ceiling if he thinks I'm making too much noise (nevermind, you know, the stream of traffic and people walking by outside). This has including me having the "audacity" to put on a duvet cover at 11pm on a Tuesday. I'm not sure he realizes who has the power in this relationship since I live above him but anyway...

It would be nice to have an apartment where noise wasn't a factor and I've had a look around at to see what else my money could get me and, honestly, I think I'd need to spend $2700/month to get something that would obviously be better.

So I guess I'm staying put. :)

Re: Poll: How much do you make as a programmer?

#62

Post by veyron »

gst wrote: post #52
veyron wrote: post #46

What is the point is this? Sorry for asking, but you are either curious about how much everyone else is making or trying to value yourself in the market. If you are curious about how much everyone else is making, stop. Just stop. It won't make you feel good. You will feel shitty because I would imagine the HN crowd will show better numbers than america as a whole, or even just your city. To illustrate my point, if yo…

There are enormous differences in the productivity of programmers. Even in the area of "good programmers" really good people can be multiple times faster than others. (Also "better" than others, but that's not directly measurable). So I think it's perfectly reasonable if the salaries of people are assigned directly according to their capabilities. Why should a programmer that is twice as fast as his peers only get 10…

"Why should a programmer that is twice as fast as his peers only get 10% or 20% more?" It really depends on the industry. Take finance. Having a programmer who can spit out code ten tiems as fast as his compatriots doesn't result in a ten-fold improvement of returns. There's some economic benefit (because there is real value to having better programmers) but don't expect it to be proportional to skill in an industry for which the software isn't the final product/service (or where other aspects, like legal, really drive the business)

Re: Poll: How much do you make as a programmer?

#63

Post by [deleted] »

dev_jim wrote: post #49
cletus wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you think San Francisco rents are expensive I suggest you don't move to Manhattan. I live in a (true) one bedroom second-storey walkup in Chelsea, which actually has a new kitchen and bathroom (renovations made after the last tenant left to get it out of rent stabilization) and pay $2,000 a month for it. And that actually seems to be a pretty good deal. For a decent building (one with an elevator where you don't h…

Please tell me how you found a renovated walk-up 1BR in Chelsea for $2k :)

[deleted]

Re: Poll: How much do you make as a programmer?

#64

Post by dev_jim »

cletus wrote: post #61
dev_jim wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please tell me how you found a renovated walk-up 1BR in Chelsea for $2k :)

A good broker is worth their exorbitant fee. The way I see it a broker should be doing one of two things (or preferably both): 1. Saving you time in finding an apartment; and/or 2. Saving you money. It took two afternoons (in January this year) to find this apartment. When I saw it was being renovated so I had no idea what it would look like but it was a decent size (~500 sqft), on a nice street off 8th Avenue and on…

Interesting hearing your positive experience with the broker. I had a lot of trouble using brokers when I first arrived. I ended up finding my rennovated Greenwich Village 1BR on Craigslist for $2,500 which was $500-$1,000 less than similar quality apartments that the brokers were showing me (On top of their 15% fee!)

Noise is a huge problem as well. Lots of NYU kids in this neighborhood who are out at all hours on Friday and Saturday evenings. But the far West Village is like 50% more so I'm going to be staying put for the time being :)

Re: Poll: How much do you make as a programmer?

#66

Post by joshmlewis »

chubot wrote: post #47
russell wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I commute to SF on a weekly basis and stay in a hotel because it's cheaper than an apartment. And my bed gets made every day. Edit: $65/day including tax * 13 days/month ~= $850. Allowing for holidays, vacation and occasional work from home. It's decent, better than Motel 6, more like Best Western. I got a good rate because I negotiated it years ago. It's outside SF itself, but I use Bart.

Really? How much is the hotel? If it's $100/night, which I don't think gets you a very good hotel, and you stay 20 nights a month, that's already $2000.

There are some extended stay hotels that are cheaper. I'm not sure about SF but I know around where I live you can get a studio/kitchen/living space for $700 a month.

But then again you can live in a fancy apartment downtown in the heart of things for around $1.2k a month.

Re: Poll: How much do you make as a programmer?

#67

Post by jezclaremurugan »

veyron wrote: post #62
gst wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are enormous differences in the productivity of programmers. Even in the area of "good programmers" really good people can be multiple times faster than others. (Also "better" than others, but that's not directly measurable). So I think it's perfectly reasonable if the salaries of people are assigned directly according to their capabilities. Why should a programmer that is twice as fast as his peers only get 10…

"Why should a programmer that is twice as fast as his peers only get 10% or 20% more?" It really depends on the industry. Take finance. Having a programmer who can spit out code ten tiems as fast as his compatriots doesn't result in a ten-fold improvement of returns. There's some economic benefit (because there is real value to having better programmers) but don't expect it to be proportional to skill in an industry…

"Having a programmer who can spit out code ten times as fast as his compatriots doesn't result in a ten-fold improvement of returns."

Or maybe it does. A programmer using a better algo might save CPU cycles, storage needed, time to complete, or may even do something which would be plainly impossible for an average programmer. So, in the real world, a programmer who is better by 10% actually yields far more than 10 fold improvement of returns. There is significant economic benefit, but they should be clever enough to point it out.

Re: Poll: How much do you make as a programmer?

#68

Post by scottio »

kashif wrote: post #45

Not everyone works in the US - fairly narrow minded view of the world?

This poll was clearly designed to canvas United States cities, even if it wasn't explicitly stated. Is that narrow-minded? I don't think so. If I happened upon a poll on a Russian tech site that mentioned Omsk and Moscow and St. Petersburg, I'd assume it was a national poll. And then I'd move on.

Perhaps it's narrow-minded to assume that a poll on a U.S.-based tech site should by default be global in scope?

Re: Poll: How much do you make as a programmer?

#70

Post by ThaddeusQuay2 »

How much do I make? Sometimes, I simply can't put a price on what I do.

Two years ago, I was kidnapped by monkeys, who appeared to be in a trance. They took me to the top of the Swayambhunath Buddhist complex, in Kathmandu. I was told that this was the Monkey Temple. As a monk translated the wishes of the holy monkeys, I discovered that I was required to rewrite the OS of their ancient computer, which had failed to reboot, back in 1839. Since then, they had searched the world for a programmer competent to handle the situation. They were about to give up, as they stumbled onto me, and realized that I was the reincarnation of ChiChu Gomptar, the lead programmer for the CS monkey gang, which had served their monkey king, the creator of this computer. I was flummoxed by its design, as it was made of smooth stones, uniform beads, colored sand, and wooden levers inlaid with gold. I told them that I couldn't remember anything from my past life. They gave me something to smoke, saying that it would connect me, through the eternal ether, to my previous memories.

It did, and after 25 days of extreme programming, of which I recall no details, I had completed the monumental task. I stood up, and ceremoniously dropped the special IPL bead onto the machine, which then awoke from its 170-year slumber with a mighty roar. The holy monkeys were pleased. They handed over a small golden box, with mysterious carvings. It seemed empty, and I was told not to open it unless my circumstances had become truly dire. I thanked them, both for the box, and for the tremendous experience. Unfortunately, I was not able to sell them continued maintenance for their new OS, but that was mostly due to their language not having the word "maintenance". Anyway, I have those memories, and this box to use when things go really bad, plus the always-present hope of future adventure.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swayambhunath http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initial_Program_Load

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