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And yet, unaccountably, Elon is the one who ends up with buckets of money.
I believe that Elon isn’t primarily motivated by money - he’s motivated by power, which he wants to use to achieve his goals. But money is a proxy for any goal you care to name, because it can be used to achieve any care you care to name.
Older tech guys who know their worth will sometimes do passion projects for a discount, like film stars, and good on them. But “do it for the love” is an excuse used to fool generation after generation of passionate young people out of demanding what their boss knows they’re worth.
Yeah, "this job isn't about the money, it's about passion" throws up as many red flags for me as "this job is about bringing your Whole Self to work to be part of The Family"
Scam alarm, demand twice as much money or walk if the CEO can't show his $1 executive pay package to prove he's only in it for the passion.
I feel like I've stumbled on /r/fednews. Don't like your job? Think the CEO gets paid too much? Good. Quit and find a better one. Better yet, start your own business. It's still a free country.
You've stumbled on a problem with the system (from the tech guy's point of view). The skill that matters most for making money is not technical. Being a technical guy doesn't give you the skill to start your own successful business, and if you try to partner with business people to do it, they're almost certainly going to get most of the money in the success case. They'll be the ones taking private jets and entertaining celebrities in their multiple mansions, while the middle-aged tech guys are trying to stay current enough to keep a job to pay a mortgage on one house in the Bay Area and take a vacation (flying coach) once in a while.
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