There are a few different things I’d like to address with your comment:

• I’m sorry if your takeaway was “follow these three easy steps to net my comp package”. That was absolutely not the goal; the goal was to give insight into how the process went for me and samples of conversations I had so people that are unfamiliar could share some of my experience without having to go through the process first. Based on a flood of messages it’s been very helpful. The package is definitely above-market.
• The $300k figure has a signing bonus rolled into it and amortized over the four years. This (as I mention) makes for a much easier number to compare between packages, with some companies offering $0 and some offering a lot more than $0. Maybe this is why the number feels, as you put it, “unbelievable”?
• Not leaving much, just personally identifying info. You’re the second person to suggest I have a patent. Is that really a common thing? I had no clue. I had projects, but nothing that I would call significant. Users in the tens and not the millions (or hundreds). I built an app so I could learn Swift — that’s it :)

I’m curious what you think the motivation would be to make up my posts. They’re published by publishers after the fact that asked to do so, so I’m not getting money; my career is separated from it, so I’m not getting new job offers; and the people I’m helping, by and large, are new grads, so I’m not getting connections with CEOs at cutting-edge startups.

Also, for what it’s worth, my best friend that I practiced interviews with ended up getting ~$50k more/yr with a two or three years of experience on me.