I'm in the 25k-50k bracket, and I can definitely say that a GOOD chunk of that rep came from happening to be the first to answer a trivial question. The reasoning is that other editors also jump on it, see that you've already answered it, and upvote you instead of answering themselves.
But that's why I don't use reputation as a measure of my experience on StackOverflow. It's all about the great answers that you put a lot of time into researching and that you know will stand as a resource for future visitors. And by the way: these kinds of answers give you a lot more money for jam (http://data.stackexchange.com/stackoverflow/query/8116/my-mo...) than the quick ones that never again get visited after an hour.
But that's why I don't use reputation as a measure of my experience on StackOverflow. It's all about the great answers that you put a lot of time into researching and that you know will stand as a resource for future visitors. And by the way: these kinds of answers give you a lot more money for jam (http://data.stackexchange.com/stackoverflow/query/8116/my-mo...) than the quick ones that never again get visited after an hour.