That makes no sense. You only have to remember one sandwich at a time to decide on the best sandwich, but you have to remember at least three numbers to recall the mean and standard deviation.
Greedy algorithms run the same way every time given the same choices. Why? Because, if options are received in a deterministic order, it'll make the locally optimal choice.
With iterate and repair, people are using an internal heuristic to make a choice and refining that over time. These are not necessarily the locally optimal choice.
$80-100k understates the salaries in Silicon Valley. $100k isn't even a recent college grad salary, it's usually closer to $110k + $40k in other compensation == $150k right out of college. A few years of experience pushes you well over the $200k mark. Heck, interns even get paid $8k/month which is almost $100k/year.
Seriously, brush up your resume and apply to the major firms.
By the way, I should note that cost of living and taxes are much higher here. Standard rent is >$2k (which is nothing compared to some parts of NYC, I guess...)
Usually it's not $200k salary, but compensation package. A typical example is:
$165k base salary, $25k annual bonus, $40k stock.
Sorry, I won't mention any particular companies, but if you're close to anyone at a major software firm, you should easily be able to find out what it's like.
Except none of my friends in the bay area make that little. In fact, few of my friends in their late 20s are making under $200k a year in terms of what they write on their tax returns (total compensation package).
Your experience and the "average" typically are not comparable.