So I personally am out of the rat race, I’m already the highest level of IC at my current company (IC5) and no longer playing the game.

But, the cynical take and the one I would advise anyone to take who wanted to maximize their compensation and was early career is that you work to exchange the maximum compensation for your labor to exchange for goods and services. “This type of developer” is the only one that gets ahead in BigTech or adjacent companies.