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Mike Lee on why he can charge $1,000/hr for iPhone development

le.mu.rs

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Re: Mike Lee on why he can charge $1,000/hr for iPhone development

#71

Post by jawn »

mrshoe wrote: post #25

That’s a little like hearing what Brad Pitt got paid for his last movie and wondering why the producer didn’t instead hire Brad Pitman for scale. Oh you’ve never heard of Brad Pitman? You’re not familiar with his work? But you are familiar with Brad Pitt’s work, right? After all, he’s an experienced actor and producer with not one, but two, Academy Award nominations and a portfolio full of household names. Bzzzt. Hor…

I agree.

Brad Pitt earns what he does because of the amount of money his movies bring in. If Mike Lee can bring in enough monies for his clients to recoup his exorbitant hourly rate, more power to him.

He should definitely tone down the ego and rhetoric a bit though.

Re: Mike Lee on why he can charge $1,000/hr for iPhone development

#72

Post by WildUtah »

_delirium wrote: post #24
rortian wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Marginal tax rates being high is a great idea. I'd be with you if people with high salaries spent all, or virtually all, of their salary. But they don't. In this economy we need more money being spent. When things are doing well again, you could try to make a case for the rich being richer, but it's a strange cause to take up.

They're also exceptionally low, currently. There are no rates above 35%, whereas they used to be above 70% back in the Eisenhower/Kennedy/Johnson/Ford/Carter/early-Reagan days. But I suppose which rates and which kinds of incentives count as too high / too low is always relative and subjective...

Actually, under Eisenhower and Kennedy the top marginal rate was always between 91% and 95%. Then it was 70% until the early 1980s when it went down to 50%.

That's just federal, not including state and city income taxes.

Re: Mike Lee on why he can charge $1,000/hr for iPhone development

#73

Post by rortian »

fgf wrote: post #68
rortian wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Marginal tax rates being high is a great idea. I'd be with you if people with high salaries spent all, or virtually all, of their salary. But they don't. In this economy we need more money being spent. When things are doing well again, you could try to make a case for the rich being richer, but it's a strange cause to take up.

This PG essay is a good refutation of the notion that (progressive or, at least, non-regressive) taxes are a "win" for the poor in a zero sum game: "The Pie Fallacy A surprising number of people retain from childhood the idea that there is a fixed amount of wealth in the world. There is, in any normal family, a fixed amount of money at any moment. But that's not the same thing. When wealth is talked about in this con…

>This PG essay is a good refutation of the notion that (progressive or, at least, non-regressive) taxes are a "win" for the poor in a zero sum game:

This is a straw man. I cannot think of anyone (and I'd love to see you find a progressive or anyone) that would say that economics is a zero sum game.

A lot of this community did form around pg's essays. However, it's a little sickening to think that anyone would take them as gospel. Since the early days of reddit and hn these things have been vigorously debated. pg is at his best when talking about start ups and I think the way he conveys how founders should think is good stuff. However, please do not expect, or treat his writing, like he will win a nobel prize in economics.

Re: Mike Lee on why he can charge $1,000/hr for iPhone development

#74

Post by mikeklaas »

xenophanes wrote: post #30
rortian wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Marginal tax rates being high is a great idea. I'd be with you if people with high salaries spent all, or virtually all, of their salary. But they don't. In this economy we need more money being spent. When things are doing well again, you could try to make a case for the rich being richer, but it's a strange cause to take up.

> In this economy we need more money being spent. Economic activity is not economic productivity . Spending money doesn't make us richer. Producing does. Encouraging people to work more would help the economy; encouraging to people to spend more would only help to the extent that it stimulates people to produce stuff for sale.

> Spending money doesn't make us richer.

Sure it does. If I buy good A for $X, I must value having good A a least _slightly_ more than having $X in my pocket. Similarly, the seller values $X in his pocket more than having good A in his inventory.

Hence, we have completed a transaction where the wealth of both parties has increased. This is the essence of why capitalism works.

Re: Mike Lee on why he can charge $1,000/hr for iPhone development

#75

Post by smokey_the_bear »

sachinag wrote: post #47

To everyone who thinks he's crazy, a single, solitary counter that is in no way indicative of a trend or a pattern: when it comes time to have someone build our iPhone app, I know who my first e-mail will be. You wanna know why? I know his rate without having to fill out a goddamn "contact me" form and his portfolio signals that he's worth the rate. Now, I have no idea how many hours it would take to build our app, b…

Really? We don't have a consulting page up at all, and we get contacted all the time for people looking to build navigation apps. If you look at similar apps in the app store, it's really easy to contact the developers. And it seems most developers charge between 75 and 250/hour. A wide range, yes, but certainly less than this guy.

Re: Mike Lee on why he can charge $1,000/hr for iPhone development

#76

Post by mkramlich »

mrshoe wrote: post #25

That’s a little like hearing what Brad Pitt got paid for his last movie and wondering why the producer didn’t instead hire Brad Pitman for scale. Oh you’ve never heard of Brad Pitman? You’re not familiar with his work? But you are familiar with Brad Pitt’s work, right? After all, he’s an experienced actor and producer with not one, but two, Academy Award nominations and a portfolio full of household names. Bzzzt. Hor…

But... he's a household name for some reason, right?

There was some original core non-meta reason he became famous.

I suspect the reason had to do with some combination of the following: women find him attractive, men admire him and/or want to be as cool as him, PLUS arguably he's actually a pretty decent actor given the right role/script.

Re: Mike Lee on why he can charge $1,000/hr for iPhone development

#77

Post by mkramlich »

petercooper wrote: post #56
mrshoe wrote: post #25

That’s a little like hearing what Brad Pitt got paid for his last movie and wondering why the producer didn’t instead hire Brad Pitman for scale. Oh you’ve never heard of Brad Pitman? You’re not familiar with his work? But you are familiar with Brad Pitt’s work, right? After all, he’s an experienced actor and producer with not one, but two, Academy Award nominations and a portfolio full of household names. Bzzzt. Hor…

He commands his rates because he is a household name. [..] You, however, are an iPhone app developer. App purchasers have never heard of you. They will not turn out in droves to buy an app just because you worked on it. I think his conclusion is wrong but the analogy is good. It's unnecessary to be literal with the term "household." Most of the world's top scientists, lawyers, and bankers aren't household names, yet…

Interesting comparison you made too. Because for me, I respect Carmack a hell of a lot more than Mike Lee. And I suspect he's a much better programmer as well. And human being.

Re: Mike Lee on why he can charge $1,000/hr for iPhone development

#78

Post by mkramlich »

agotterer wrote: post #29
alexkiwi wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not so sure I would want to work with this guy, Zed Shaw on the other hand was one of the nicest people I've ever gotten an e-mail from

I met Zed in person a few months ago at a meetup. I had an awesome 45 min chat about everything technology. What a nice guy. I wish him all the best. Mike Lee's blog title is "motherfucker". From that alone you can derive what type of person you're about to do business with. Theres no question his experience and skills are incredible. Fact of the matter is there are other successful app developers who likely have a r…

I'd date her for an hour, tops. And I bet she'd charge me $1000 for it. (Discounts for repeat customers.) Wait a minute.

Re: Mike Lee on why he can charge $1,000/hr for iPhone development

#79

Post by jayruy »

kevinskii wrote: post #67
jayruy wrote: post #31

"im so great at coding because i've spent so little of my life doing it! that makes me better, qed" huh?

I don't think he's claiming to be a great coder, but rather a great app designer. And he's right, life experience can come in handy in that area.

i consider myself more right-brain leaning than many in this field, but i still consider this nonsense. wtf does, for example, knocking about on foreign adventures have anything to do with making a great app? ok great, resourcefulness, but show me something relevant if you want $1k an hour

if he has some experience other than coding that makes him so fit, he should mention it, but this is pure bravado, and that doesn't sit well with me

Re: Mike Lee on why he can charge $1,000/hr for iPhone development

#80

Post by petercooper »

mkramlich wrote: post #77
petercooper wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He commands his rates because he is a household name. [..] You, however, are an iPhone app developer. App purchasers have never heard of you. They will not turn out in droves to buy an app just because you worked on it. I think his conclusion is wrong but the analogy is good. It's unnecessary to be literal with the term "household." Most of the world's top scientists, lawyers, and bankers aren't household names, yet…

Interesting comparison you made too. Because for me, I respect Carmack a hell of a lot more than Mike Lee. And I suspect he's a much better programmer as well. And human being.

I find it more interesting that you're using a blog post to judge the author's quality as a human being.
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