Hey Robert! Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I personally wouldn't do any job for someone else in any profession if there wasn't a fat salary along with it.

But, assuming everyone understands that it's not worth "selling your soul" unless you have an income high enough that you can actually save 20-30% or more of your income on at a minimum, then the criteria of "hiring yourself if you were the hiring manager" is a great idea.

I broke down why that means $100,000 isn't even a "fat" salary for an in-person software engineer in San Mateo, CA in another recent article that you may enjoy: https://medium.com/career-programming/the-real-reason-american-developers-are-desperate-for-remote-work-5e8fb5eeb6c7