There's a handful of people being paid millions. And they will expect everyone underneath them to have the same work ethic, for far less pay

A typical engineer at a top AI startup makes over 1M/year, mostly equity. You may think that the equity is worthless, but they don't and that's part of why they are willing to work hard

> startup [...] mostly equity

So, a purported 1M/yr but it's in funny money.

Sure, but some of these companies are valued at multiples lower than public companies doing AI. It's reasonable to discount that but foolish to ignore it

- What background do you assume a typical engineer has? (I.E., title, years of experience, internal level)

- Which firms qualify as top AI startups?

- What percentage of the $1M is paid as salary?

- How widely do equity packages vary for people with this background?

0-10 years experience (wide range)

Let's say top 30 by valuation

Depending on the startup, 10-25%

Very widely

I claim the median is around 1M at these top companies. Not the median offer, but the median current employee

You're claiming contradictory things

> A typical engineer at a top AI startup makes over 1M/year, mostly equity. [0]

>> - What percentage of the $1M is paid as salary?

> Depending on the startup, 75-90%

Which one is it? I've worked for multiple AI startups and have many friends in the space and I don't know that many are making $750-900k cash, but calling $100-250k cash + dreams and wishes a million doesn't add up either.

0. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44698470

I read it backwards, 75-90 is equity. I fixed.

But I should make it clear that ordinarily I'd agree with the haters, but AI is actually different and so much wealth will be created that many of these unicorns will end up exiting for plenty. The people who got left out of the windsurf deal will still make millions (just not tens of millions)

Burnout is: exhaustion, inefficacy and depersonalization. The crash happens when inefficacy kicks because that’s very market-dependent and not really something anyone can control. The easiest of those to control is exhaustion but it’s also nigh-impossible to measure. So I think our best bet is to keep a close eye on depersonalization and shift gears immediately if that ever happens.

Work for a public company and get paid in real equity or start your own company if you want to burn yourself out.

Anything less is a monumental waste of time and energy.

Looks like you’re a founder based on your profile so you’ve also figured this out.

Frankly this sounds like a cult mentality that I would cautiously endure for a lucrative salary.