That's not really virtuoso, that's just what you get a while (5-10 years, sometimes less) after starting your coding career.
My larger point is that they're not worth as much as the coder who can also project manage/lead/mentor/etc, because the latter coder can both be a "virtuoso" (or like 95% of one) and also make the people around them better, and that's substantially more valuable.
The thing folks who "just want to code" don't realize is that their "value above replacement" is never going to be high enough to justify the desired pay increase over time that most folks expect as they advance in their careers.
That said, it's probably more fine if you want to be 10+ years into your career and accept the pay comparable to those more junior coders. Some people do get this by negotiating fewer hours, for example.
And not for nothing, but leading/mentoring is highly achievable for any "virtuoso" coder; not wanting to help others and pitch in on design is a personal choice, as most "virtuoso" coders would probably be great at both if they put in the effort. It just means holding meetings more and coding less, which is outside of their comfort zone and therefore "scary" in some sense.
They could be doing so many other great things, I wish they would please try to get over their insecurities and fears! I will help, as that's my job because I did get over those things and transition into this role from a coding role.
Well I would disagree that anyone would get to that level. Some folk just never seem to learn how to properly build and maintain a software project. Sure though I agree that any virtuoso coder should branch out to mentoring and architecting as that's basically expected of them having the experience.
Yet I don't know hour-wise how much they'd have to put in having meetings if they already kinda know how to build the system. I don't think that would necessarily be scary to them, just annoying if they had to be constantly distracted by having to mull over details that aren't that important.
To me a virtuoso is the consultant who knows how to build all parts of the project who is not there to lead the team but will help out anyone in the project - and will take care of it being built properly.
… that’s literally what all the meetings are for, to take care of building the project properly, because you know how to build all of the parts of the product.
There is no level of skill at which anyone will ever just be able to do an entire project on their own; no matter how good you are, you’re always going to be better with others.
My larger point is that they're not worth as much as the coder who can also project manage/lead/mentor/etc, because the latter coder can both be a "virtuoso" (or like 95% of one) and also make the people around them better, and that's substantially more valuable.
The thing folks who "just want to code" don't realize is that their "value above replacement" is never going to be high enough to justify the desired pay increase over time that most folks expect as they advance in their careers.
That said, it's probably more fine if you want to be 10+ years into your career and accept the pay comparable to those more junior coders. Some people do get this by negotiating fewer hours, for example.
And not for nothing, but leading/mentoring is highly achievable for any "virtuoso" coder; not wanting to help others and pitch in on design is a personal choice, as most "virtuoso" coders would probably be great at both if they put in the effort. It just means holding meetings more and coding less, which is outside of their comfort zone and therefore "scary" in some sense.
They could be doing so many other great things, I wish they would please try to get over their insecurities and fears! I will help, as that's my job because I did get over those things and transition into this role from a coding role.