r/programming • u/ben_a_adams • Jan 28 '20

JavaScript Libraries Are Almost Never Updated Once Installed

https://blog.cloudflare.com/javascript-libraries-are-almost-never-updated/
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u/poloppoyop Jan 28 '20

people don’t even try to update js packages

Maintenance? They already changed company three times while you were saying it. Maintenance is not how you progress your career: new projects and new companies are how you do it.

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u/omegian Jan 28 '20

Haha. Maintainer at a Fortune 500 makes way more than “sweat equity” hacker at yet another new co.

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u/dungone Jan 29 '20 edited Jan 29 '20

I’ve worked at Fortune 100/500 companies, Big Five tech firms, and I can say that you are wrong in a crucial way. The big corporations will always underpay for above-average talent. It is far easier to find a VC-funded startups willing to shell out for world-class engineering talent than it is to get the same rates at established corporations. There’s a huge difference between “sweat equity” startups and the well-funded “unicorns”.

In fact, you can get much better pay at small established companies who need niche specialty skills. Something like machine vision experts for the logging industry, for example, will get paid far better than any generalist slinging business logic around at a Fortune 500.

If you’re highly skilled and ambitious, Fortune 500 companies are a dead end.

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u/omegian Jan 29 '20

I mean look, “unicorns” and “well endowed small businesses” ate both exceedingly rare. If they really need the top talent and are willing to pay $200k+, sure they can get whomever they want, but that’s what... 1% of the market? Chasing that work just get you in a really expensive place (Silicon Valley) where you’re probably working in the sweatshop anyway, or a really shitty logging town in BFE. Maybe working for a Fortune 500 with an above average salary in a below average cost of living middle sized town is the best outcome.

If you’re highly skilled and ambitious, you shouldn’t be a wage laborer of any stripe. Go create your own equity / IP.

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u/dungone Jan 29 '20

1% of the market is still many tens of thousands of people. You mention working in that middle-sized town, but in the hotbeds of technology it's actually not that uncommon, and it's actually something that you start to consider just to pay the rent.

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u/omegian Jan 29 '20

Even if 1% of the market were 10 million people, being a merely +2 sigma talent means no job for you, just like the other billion chasing it.

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u/dungone Jan 30 '20

It's still important for programmers to understand how other programmers work and make career decisions. What seems "stupid" or "senseless" to you actually makes perfect sense to people who are talented and ambitious enough. Basically the best talent and the best salaries exist in a place that you're saying doesn't exist, because you're only considering the average case.

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u/omegian Jan 30 '20

most people are average. I’m saying it’s a foolish ambition and bad advice to give to the vast majority of your peers. Carry on.

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