last 20 devs i talked to ‘think’ they’re at the edge of AI coding.
but they’re absolutely not.
you will work on some of the most challenging things and be paid very well
best way is to brag about your setup and/or products you churned out this weekend
I decided to target developers who can demonstrably handle AI‑centric projects rather than those who merely claim competence, because past interactions revealed consistent overestimation of AI coding skill, leading to mismatched expectations and wasted interview cycles. My screening now requires concrete weekend AI‑related work examples and a deep evaluation of their setup (frameworks, tooling, infrastructure). Interviews focus on problem‑solving tasks that mimic the most challenging aspects of the role and on walking through recent AI products built over a weekend, while compensation is emphasized as very high to attract capable candidates.
I considered pricing a service at $200,000 per year for someone to execute it.
Proposed charge: 200k per year.