Should Younger Developers Be Paid More?

Helpful Dilbert: Asok's Sweeney Todd Lesson

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Should Younger Developers Be Paid More?: "jammag writes "A project manager describes facing an upset senior developer who learned that a new hire — a fresh college grad — would be making 30 percent more than him. The reason: the new grad knew a hot emerging technology that a client wanted. Yes, the senior coder was majorly pissed off. But with the constant upheaval in new technology, this situation is almost unavoidable — or is it? And at any rate, is it fair?"

Sorry buddy, this is why you never want to know what others are making within your company. What you do want to know is how your salary places within the median for your locality for your field. If you are at the median or above, STFU and keep a low profile.

If you are under the median, then you are underpaid. You will need to decide what to do about it, be it ask for a raise, make a move for a promotion or get a job elsewhere. What the other guy makes plays nothing into this.

Recruiting is affected by supply and demand. There is a reason why the n00b was hired, and one of these is that the upset senior developer (USD) can't do whatever the new warm body (NWB) can do. I can tell you right now that nobody in his right mind in a for profit is going to hire even one more NWB than needed because it simply hurts the bottom line. Either NWBs are brought in as needed, or USDs are pushed out in favor of the NWBs.

The USD is also showing a painful disconnect with the monetary realities of writing code for profit. Notice that the NWB was brought in because he is bringing a new tech that a client wanted. That is code for more revenue. The NWB, even at a 30% premium over the USD, is going to bring revenue into the company that would not be possible with just the USD since he doesn't know the new tech.

It is not about fair, it is not about entitlement, it is just business. Now, if the NWB gets paid 30% more and he is a fucktard, then by all means raise hell.

On sleep deprivation and Incan Monkey Gods

From: Dilbert comic strip for 08/03/1992 from the official Dilbert comic strips archive. I was trying to show this strip to a coworker who is dangerously toying with the harsh mistress that is Insomnia. What shocked me is how quickly I was able to look up the strip, which was published when he was just 11 years old, and two weeks before my just-out-of-college ass shipped out to US Army Basic Training.

The Black Hole

If this was a minigolf hole, you can't reach B from A. Ever. If this was a room lined with mirrors, and you lit a candle at point A, you can't see it from B, not even reflected. Update: I guess I didn't explain this all the way through. You can't reach B from A with just one stroke, there's no direct line between them, and there is no way to bounce the ball (assuming perfect conditions). Thanks to Ben for pointing this obvious error.

Add custom speed settings to your ifit map workout

Ifit.com allows you to build a workout walk/race/bike route simply by clicking on a Google Maps interface. You can then use a compatible ifit-enabled workout machine to recreate the route automatically. The problem is that the user interface still isn't final, so there are features in place that aren't exactly obvious. For example, if you create a workout your machine starts at 1 MPH, because that's the default. But how to set it to start at say, 3 MPH? Easy, just switch from map view to graph view: That button switches from the Google Maps interface to a chart that allows you to visualize and control effort: You can't change the elevation, this is fixed due to the geography that you selected. But you can drag the yellow (speed line) to change the speed of your device. What if you want to have segments at different speeds? Easy, just click and drag and it will break the line, and you can drag each segment of the line independently: ...

The Insomniac Coder

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