Soon-to-be a freshman in college. If you don't mind me asking, what career path do you wish you took?
The gist I was going for was more that even in a dev's greatest successes, they will likely never see most of the returns they generate for others without taking on some sort of "other" role (founder, CTO, etc), while to the other side of that coin, we do often get hit by the fallout of a failure (slipping a deadline, etc) and certainly don't get a payout that I would consider MASSIVE.
I've heard many arguments that this is aligned with the respective risk we take, but as my original statement, I'd take a hell of a lot more risk if it meant never working again a day in my life, but that's not even a choice us normal schmucks can really make :) (I'm also not convinced the risk argument is even sound, as that one MONTH's pay at a top exec salary essentially frees me from financial risk for the rest of my life, whereas I'll be working for decades even at a top eng salary to achieve the same)
Easy.
Also getting lucky is on another level than Mayer who simply got a job in the early Google years and surfed on that reputation ever since.
So: Live in the right place, have money, preferrably get out of a very well known school such as Stanford or MIT, get lucky.
Yeah, that's not an option for 99.99% of people.
It's facile of me to diagnose your life over the internet but I often think of the deathbed quote:
"I wish I had earned more money and spent less time with my family" -- no one ever
Universal healthcare in Germany likely helps offset the cost to some extent, but in the US those who even have healthcare usually get it through their employer. Really, it's more just a different expectation about what a reasonable life is.
I always think of how complex a television is, with thousands of little tiny components that had to be mined from the earth and forged and assembled and soldered (likely involving some child labor that we'd all prefer not to think about) and how many hundreds of people were involved. And then how it's just assumed in the US that it's reasonable to be able afford one of these in exchange for doing something simple like working a cash register at a bank for a few weeks, or how your quality of life somehow requires having multiple televisions etc.
The startup ran out of money, and I took the MacMini with me, so I could continue working.
The MacMini is also currently using a damaged HDD, that S.M.A.R.T. keeps telling me should be replaced and is already critical, because I can't afford actually replacing the HDD.
I was kicked out of the apartment I was living, and now I live with my parents, my parents own a store, and by law, all sales must have a tax form filled online, thus internet is a hard requeriment to have a store, I am using that internet connection.
The maintenance of my websites, cost for me in total, about half a month of food.
Currently my source of food is mostly debt (ie: me, my parents, and other extended family members are taking loans to pay basic stuff).
It is not like getting rid of my computer, would help me, my choosen profession, the unprofitable one, is to be a programmer, so I need it to work anyway.
So, it is not a question of valuing technology above eating, it is that I already have technology because of my work, and getting rid of it won't make food sprout on my plate.
Even if I managed to sell all my belongings, I would still be unable to buy food anyway (my net worth is negative, even if I sold every single object I own, somehow for their "new" non-depreciated value, even my glasses, I would still not pay all my debts).
Screenshot of my desktop, with MacMini about screen, and smartctl -a /dev/disk0/
You want my bank account screenshot too? I can tell you how much it has (positive 37.71 BRL, overdraft is disabled)
I honestly doesn't understand why people think I am coming up with lies, I didn't asked for anything, I just shared an anecdote, I am not begging, not trying to guilt-trip people, I was only sharing personal information, the fact that I made a mistake when I decided to follow my passion (programming), when people advised me to instead take a safer profession (construction worker for example) instead.
It is possible for people to listen to what is said and disagree with it, or refuse to believe it.
Do you think he literally can't afford food?
At the beginning of your career, I think the most important thing is to learn. Any company where you're learning a lot is a good place to be.
But I think you need to be able to learn to like what you're doing, even if it doesn't sound like your cup of tea. Get out of your confort zone. Go into a company that does something that's not just IT (that is, not a company that sells stuff for programmers). Human Resources, healthcare, geology, law, finance, advertising, any other domain other than IT. If I were re-doing my career, I'd try to get into any good situation with not only interesting tech, but interesting non-tech problems to solve.
Getting domain expertise outside of tech + strong tech fundamentals is huge, and a great way to build a really good company later on if that's your cup of tea, or be a great consultant or team member.
That way, you get both an interesting job, and very likely, very good financial rewards if you're good at what you're doing.
The worst mistake I've made was getting sucked into a dead-end path and staying because of the money. If I had gotten out early, I would have taken a financial hit early on, but would have continued an upward trajectory instead of plateauing (and working on stuff with non-marketable skills).
My advice is to make sure wherever you are, you're working on the thing that senior management care most about. That's where you'll have the opportunity to work towards ambitious goals with the best mentors and exposure to real-world consequences.
Your point of working on what senior management cares most about is also good (but easier said than done !!!).
Workers in secondary/support activities (as IT is in most non-tech companies) don't get that many opportunities.