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Comment by inovator | Hacker News Reader

"For example, when I see the wait staff at a restaurant running around to serve dinner, I feel these people as working much harder than any internet engineer you’ll ever see"

True but being a waiter doesn't not required much skills or staying up all night to fix a product blocker issue.

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Most people can become an average waiter very quickly, whereas most people hardly care to know how their computer works. The additional pay is for the huge amounts of time we've spent learning the craft, some of us being obsessed with it since childhood, and the mild rarity of the skill. Also because writing some code has the possibility of affecting huge numbers of people and bringing in a decent sum of money for a company, whereas you can only wait on so many tables per day for an industry known for its low margins.

That's not to say that the proportions are balanced, or that all good waiters are getting what they deserve, or that there aren't shoddy engineers who are getting far more than they deserve. There's just a lot more money in computers than foodservice.

I hate when people say stuff like X should get paid more or Y should get paid less. You can't say that without explaining your moral system. You can't go from is to ought.

Both have highly stressful moments, and both can require ingenuity to get things done well. Most of the time, the work you're doing as a web engineer isn't groundbreaking stuff - it's just perceived as more high-brow than serving tables.

I've done both, and I'm glad I'm not a server anymore. The people are way more interesting in the kitchen than they are in some of the cubicles around me however. Sometimes I think about picking up some bartending shifts on a weekend night here or there for some extra cash and some extra entertainment.

> Engineers are paid way too much

but

> you should be fired for not treating your engineers like solid gold

The former is a good way to do the latter.

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