There are definitely Individual Contributors who are on the same compensation level as directors. These are the engineers who revolutionize how the company operates, such as inventing HHVM and saving tons of resources.

There's a huge chasm between Directors and SVPs.

There are going to be a couple director level IC's and several hundreds of directors. Those IC's have to make industry changing tech worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Those directors just have to show up to work and be 'in charge' of whatever those IC's are doing. That's how the scam works.

"Climbing the ladder" has the connotation of stepping on other people in order to get ahead. Thinking about the analogy, if there are a bunch of people trying to climb the same ladder as you are, you have to pull people off or climb over them.

It's possible to create an incentive structure that discourages cannibalizing your coworkers.

What do you envision that looking like? It feels inherently rivalrous, at least to some degree.

I'm not sure, but when I was in the military, my SSgt told me not to burn bridges because I might end up in a situation where my life depends on that person helping me out. I thought that was an interesting incentive to cooperate. So maybe a reputation system can work, but I'm not good enough with people to know.

To be clear, I'm fine with rivalry and competition. I just think there's a sane and reasonable way to do it.

"you have to pull people off or climb over them" Or make a wider ladder?

> Or make a wider ladder?

What do you do next with your glut of senior managers?

Or on the compensation side, there may not be resources to pay everyone as much as they'd like.