I think it’s disingenuous to assume everyone in SF is commanding higher rates because they are all super talented and not coasters. There are definitely tons of undervalued engineers in poorer or lower cost areas being overlooked to do this fallacy.
Just because someone is charging $200k doesn’t mean they are worth it.
Companies previously established artificial constraints such as colocation that forced higher salaries. If colocation is no longer a requirement, it’s only natural the associated premium is going away. That is, if you want the benefit of living in, say India, then you’ll also have to incur the cost of competing against someone like Ramanujan (famous mathematician) rather than whoever just happens to be within commuting distance of Mountain View.
Just because someone is charging $200k doesn’t mean they are worth it.
Companies previously established artificial constraints such as colocation that forced higher salaries. If colocation is no longer a requirement, it’s only natural the associated premium is going away. That is, if you want the benefit of living in, say India, then you’ll also have to incur the cost of competing against someone like Ramanujan (famous mathematician) rather than whoever just happens to be within commuting distance of Mountain View.