> 20 years ago $150k was a good salary for a programmer, now it's more like $350k.

That’s $50k and $150k for those of us who don’t live in SV.

(350/150)^(1/20)=1.04. Slightly better than inflation.

Well, no! Compound inflation from 1999 to 2019 (20 years) is 1.54, which is much less than 2.33 (350/150).

Can't upvote this enough. People on HN keep talking about importance of statistics and differential equations, yet can't take account of inflation when talking about salaries from the previous millennium.

https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/ - Headline: no.