Discussion: The Developer Crunch in South Africa

Capital always complains about labor supply. Not big news, really. Raise wages and supply of labor will increase. Economists noted long ago that people respond rationally to price incentives.

" many of these skilled developers don’t adopt open source languages simply because they don’t know any better, are stuck in their ways or earn enough not to care"

Or maybe they don't want to learn skills that will help them get a job at a startup that will pay a lower rate. Believe me if you raise your pay, developers will take note.

"If you are a competent developer, you have no need to worry about job security because you are in such high demand it’s actually quite scary. And it won’t change any time soon"

Possibly, possibly not. We've seen more and more extreme shifts in economic cycles over the past few decades even in technology.

"Go ahead and take the risk to join a bunch of people trying to achieve something extraordinary instead of wasting your brilliant talent on building crummy software that nobody appreciates"

I work for a startup but I would say that just as few startups fall into the 'achieving something extraordinary' with non-crummy software as mid-size and large businesses do.

"What about the money? I recommend negotiating with a startup to earn what you need to be comfortable (along with stock options)"

I would rather recommend you negotiate as hard as possible with a startup to ensure you get what you are worth.