Of course he can charge $1,000/hr.
So can I, or so can any man; but will clients come when he advertises it?
Mike Lee on why he can charge $1,000/hr for iPhone development
141–150 of 156 posts
Re: Mike Lee on why he can charge $1,000/hr for iPhone development
#142That’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…
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Re: Mike Lee on why he can charge $1,000/hr for iPhone development
#143That’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…
Would having "From the developer of Tap Tap Revenge and Delicious Monster" help sell additional copies on the App Store? Would it help get blog coverage within the tightly nit mac elites? I believe so.
Agreed. It's why they always start trailers with "From the people who brought you 'Knocked Up' and 'Get Him to the Greek'..."
Re: Mike Lee on why he can charge $1,000/hr for iPhone development
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
Societies don't get wealthy by consuming. They do by producing. As a rule, if something is taxed there will be less of it. High marginal taxes decreases high value work. It is a terrible idea. Immoral too.
>Immoral too. Classic. Moral claims don't get you too far. I could start going on about gentiles eating shellfish, but I'm one of those gentiles. >They do by producing Sometimes. These things are complicated. But if you've already got it figured out, no need to discuss it I guess.
> Classic. Moral claims don't get you too far.
I think it's immoral to steal and kill etc., but that won't get me far arguing with you I guess?
> These things are complicated. But if you've already got it figured out, no need to discuss it I guess.
It's not just something I have figured out, there are economists that have thought about it. If you can explain how societies get wealthy by consuming more and producing less I would like to know.
Re: Mike Lee on why he can charge $1,000/hr for iPhone development
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Immoral too. Classic. Moral claims don't get you too far. I could start going on about gentiles eating shellfish, but I'm one of those gentiles. >They do by producing Sometimes. These things are complicated. But if you've already got it figured out, no need to discuss it I guess.
> Classic. Moral claims don't get you too far. I think it's immoral to steal and kill etc., but that won't get me far arguing with you I guess? > These things are complicated. But if you've already got it figured out, no need to discuss it I guess. It's not just something I have figured out, there are economists that have thought about it. If you can explain how societies get wealthy by consuming more and producing l…
Bringing murder up to justify a moral scheme that few subscribe to is a bit silly. Everyone finds murder wrong, in most circumstances, hardly everyone finds taxing the rich immoral.
These things are complicated. Wealth can be generated in a variety to ways. The Phoenicians were quite wealthy for their time for establishing a trade network in the Mediterranean.
Apple produces virtually nothing (okay they make software but lets pretend for a minute that we are talking about the hardware. People do rave about the aesthetics of the devices). However, they have plenty of 'wealth' to capture than the manufacturers do for their charging price. They having marketing savvy and they are able to get large numbers of people excited about what they think of.
Facilitating transactions and applying knowledge are not exactly producing but doing these tasks can provide a decent living. If you want to extend 'producing' to mean anything that makes people money, your statement could be a truism but it seems you are using produce in a more traditional sense.
Re: Mike Lee on why he can charge $1,000/hr for iPhone development
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you really think you can derive the character of a person based on the title of their blog? Seems pretty damned shallow to me.
Why is it shallow? It's a facade he has deliberately chosen to present to the world. That choice implies things, and he's either aware of that fact or utterly clueless. Note that I'm not saying anything about what conclusion I draw from that fact, just that it's a fact.
Because that line of thinking implies there is a link between style of expression (external presentation) and character values (morals etc).
It's like judging someone's character by how they dress (e.g. suit == good, dependable etc).
Re: Mike Lee on why he can charge $1,000/hr for iPhone development
#147Can someone please explain why when I zoom in with Chrome on this page the text size remains the same? I've never seen anything like it.
Re: Mike Lee on why he can charge $1,000/hr for iPhone development
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
I didn't say he was unethical. I said he did something that constitutes what I consider to be bad behavior. Publically announcing one's $1000/hr pay rate to the entire world, and writing a post using the particular language and attitude shown in it. That struck me as bad behavior, applying the same standards I'd expect out of anybody else. Is it like robbing a bank? Heck no. Obnoxious? In my book, yep. And look, I'm…
I've had a client once tell me that my rate was outrageously high (it was average, but anyway). Since then I have come to the conclusion that basically, it is impossible to have an outrageously high rate. My rate is not the value I assign to a particular task (ie solving the clients problem). My rate is the value I assign to my own time. How can anybody else besides me judge the "fair" value I assign to my own time?…
We agree that rates are weird and relativistic. Myself I've seen $50/hour described as too high, and $100 as too low (head explodes), and I've been treated alternately as both overqualified and underqualified for doing some technical thing that I know I could certainly do. Also seen and heard that bidding low will increase the chance of getting a gig as well as decrease the chance (for some clients), and, and, and... It's just crazy inconsistent and relative.
There's also the "all developers are the same, therefore commodity pricing is in effect" phenomenon which is annoying to encounter. And the "just tell me rate, because I know exactly how many hours this will take, and no other factor matters" phenomenon. Crazy stuff.
One good takeaway from the Lee article I had was that if you set a really high rate, even if you scare away a lot of people, all it takes is 1 client to agree to that, billing anywhere from 1 to a few hours in a given month, and you're in the holy "Ramen profitable" zone. Well, able to cover food and shelter anyway. But then you'll have tons of free time and energy leftover for other activities.
Re: Mike Lee on why he can charge $1,000/hr for iPhone development
#149Interesting approach to customer acquisition. After taxes he'd be sitting on just over a million a year without working much more than 40 hours a week. But maybe his pricing is predicated on the desire to not work 40 hour weeks?
I'm guessing the latter. You sort of win either way with that approach:
1. seek $1000/hour and actually end up billing 40+ hrs/week at that rate: WIN all the way to the bank
2. seek $1000/hour, but then end up billing a few hours/month at that rate: still WIN because you can cover your cost of living and still have lots of free time and energy for other things
Re: Mike Lee on why he can charge $1,000/hr for iPhone development
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know anyone inside Tapulous personally, so this is pure hearsay. Take it as you will. What I've heard is Mike thought Tap Tap was too low brow and that by focusing on that app to the exclusion of their other apps at the time (Twitterific and FriendBook) they were betraying his vision for the company. After he expressed his opinion about this he was asked to leave.
Did you mean Tweetsville or really, Twitterrific?
Sorry I meant Twinkle. Whatever Tapulous' Twitter client was.