Desk·2026-09-01
Shop IC still the cash plan against lab paper
Same SWE title. Hudson River pays the year in cash. Anthropic pays the mark in paper. Name the seat before the title.
Anthropic typical $591,000 against $480,000 at Hudson River Trading.
SWE typical
Anthropic typical sits ~1.23× Hudson River
Same title. Shop clears cash you keep. Lab clears paper you underwrite. Thin samples on the lab side.
How to plan it
Clear the shop IC loop before the next lab seat
A mid IC who can ship systems and still read a book should sit Hudson River, Jane Street, and Jump before another Anthropic or OpenAI loop. HRT prints $480k typical in cash you can spend in two years. Anthropic prints $591k with a thinner cash mix. The shop compounds the year you keep. The lab compounds optionality you may never realize. If you need a floor for a house or a family, the desk is the plan. If you can carry the mark and want the frontier resume, take the lab — but name the tradeoff. Do not treat a $480k shop year and a $591k lab mark as the same career move. The title is shared; the books are not.
Also: QR shops · SWE companies