Comment by nextworddev

3 years ago

Unpopular opinion: OpenAI is severely underpaying these folks at 900k considering so many asset managers / PMs in finance basically hug S&P 500 and get 1.5m+

7 comments

nextworddev

Reply
pcurve  3 years ago

Another unpopular opinion: If I think about the reasons why asset managers PMs in finance are overpaid, it's because they created elaborate rent seeking structure in society and industry, with disequilibrium in penalty vs reward. Same thing for lawyers in big firms.

I would argue the engineers in big techs also have benefited from the rent seeking structure. The only reason why they're not enjoying bigger payout is because the actual structure was created by the big tech companies, and not through coordinated effort by engineers. As a result, they reap less reward as they're just highly paid henchmen, and not the bosses.

bugglebeetle  3 years ago

Yes, but this is just because tech industry people are far more susceptible to fantasies and bullshit than those in finance. In fact, they seem to largely enjoy the fantasies and bullshit, as this whole AGI rigamarole has shown. They’ll take a pay cut because the enjoy the make-believe over the cold, naked logic of market movements.

  • umeshunni  3 years ago

    Another way to think about is that finance attracts people who care about money, tech does not.

    • bugglebeetle  3 years ago

      Tech people care about money. This whole thread wouldn’t exist otherwise. It’s just that they also derive some part of their identities from the cult-like, eschatological fantasies that are very much a part of Silicon Valley culture. By contrast, people in finance would never try to claim that they’re building a god. They already know the only god is money.

    • scarface_74  3 years ago

      You haven’t been on Blind or r/cscareerquestions:

      “I feel like such a failure because I’m 30 years old and only make $300K”