"... programmers are easily bribed by giving them the coolest, latest stuff. This is a far cheaper way to get them to work for you than actually paying competitive salaries!"
Past time (20 years ago) programmers yes. Today's programmers? No.
The Math is very simple: if a company throws a lot of money, I can buy the latest coolest stuff for the next 10 years.
I doubt programmer is that gullible (otherwise they're probably a "Yes" man).
Past time (20 years ago) programmers yes. Today's programmers? No.
The economics of hardware are very different now. In the 90s you might have a SPARCstation or an SGI on your desk at work, amazing gear you could never have afforded for yourself. Now you can easily buy a home PC that’s better than any corporate model.
I’m sure it’s still true in some industries, 3D printing maybe, but not in software anymore.
You'd be surprised. Many programmers don't negotiate, don't ask for severance or bonuses or better acceleration/vesting terms etc., feel afraid to be rejected after completing interviews, and a lot of people end up working for far lower pay than they could have otherwise gotten. I've known a lot of people who joined start-ups because they were promised various things (freedom to work on X, guarantee of publishing research, attending conferences, etc.) and then 6 months later they feel miserable that they accepted lower pay and none of the promises turned out to be true (sometimes through no intentional fault of the start-up founders, but sometimes through complete bait and switch shenanigans).
The risk that start-ups won't follow through on ambiguous work promises is super high, yet people keep falling for it year after year.
Past time (20 years ago) programmers yes. Today's programmers? No.
The Math is very simple: if a company throws a lot of money, I can buy the latest coolest stuff for the next 10 years.
I doubt programmer is that gullible (otherwise they're probably a "Yes" man).