> For most people there just isn't a lot of obvious upside waiting for them if they work extra hard. Salaries are extremely compressed compared to the US Exact

> For most people there just isn't a lot of obvious upside waiting for them if they work extra hard. Salaries are extremely compressed compared to the US Exactly! Even in a fairly well paid European country like Germany the salaries are a joke for high performers. It is difficult as a dev to earn, even after a decade of experience and working incredibly hard, more than €100k/year. But a good junior with 1-2 years of experience can earn €50k/year. So you can’t even make double after taxes of what a junior makes. Almost no matter how hard you work. And yet you could take it easy and have a great work life balance and after a decade be earning €80k/year.