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One Thousand Dollars an Hour

samsoff.es

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Re: One Thousand Dollars an Hour

#21

Post by suresk »

johnnyg wrote: post #16

Good marketing ploy. Causes people to freak out for a minute with thoughts like "is this a trend? Can this rate be sustained? Am I behind?". And here I am commenting, so he wins. All that said, please keep in mind: 1. Gravity still exists, financially and otherwise. Reality too. 2. Strong teams still win. "Pay me $1000/hr with $10,000 NDA bonus or I'll be in my trailer" might get press, but the assumptions and arroga…

If a decent to-do app is enough advertisement to be able to justify an hourly rate of $1000 (or even 1/4 that), I've been doing something really wrong.

However, the $10,000 fee (or at least some significant fee) for signing an NDA bonus is fairly reasonable. Most NDAs are usually unnecessary, inappropriately scoped, and force the person signing it to take on a substantial legal liability - I wish more people would refuse to sign them or require compensation for doing so.

Re: One Thousand Dollars an Hour

#22

Post by Falling3 »

cageface wrote: post #19
johnnyg wrote: post #16

Good marketing ploy. Causes people to freak out for a minute with thoughts like "is this a trend? Can this rate be sustained? Am I behind?". And here I am commenting, so he wins. All that said, please keep in mind: 1. Gravity still exists, financially and otherwise. Reality too. 2. Strong teams still win. "Pay me $1000/hr with $10,000 NDA bonus or I'll be in my trailer" might get press, but the assumptions and arroga…

CheddarApp is just ok. As a card carrying yearly CheddarApp subscriber, I can say that I've used it for a week and meh. I'm all for bringing up programmers' hourly rates but I think I'd want to have a little bigger feather in my cap than another to-do app before I tried a ploy like this.

I'm an android user and I don't know the man or the app. Is this really his only feather?

Re: One Thousand Dollars an Hour

#23

Post by vegas »

MBlume wrote: post #18
vegas wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can and should charge at least $225/hour if you are a competent software person. There are far less competent software people then there are mediocre lawyers, and mediocre lawyers can charge $225/hour.

Not that you're necessarily wrong, but you've only addressed supply, not demand.

"The main reason for the rapid growth is a large increase in the demand for computer software." http://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/s...

http://www.bls.gov/ooh/legal/lawyers.htm

Re: One Thousand Dollars an Hour

#25

Post by vacri »

The article is a waste of time. It's just a newly minted consultant waxing lyrical about being a newly minted consultant. Good for him if he can make it work (I'd never be able to) but this is just what a high end consultancy would charge for offering the same kind of services, nothing surprising.

Re: One Thousand Dollars an Hour

#26

Post by rprasad »

Holy cow. If CheddarApp justifies a $1000/hour rate, then good programmers could easily justify $100k/hour or better.

Lawyers who handle multimillion dollar deals can justify $1000/hour. Security specialists can justify $1000/hour. Some guy who makes a mediocre todo list application can't.

Re: One Thousand Dollars an Hour

#27

Post by thaumaturgy »

vegas wrote: post #14
DigitalSea wrote: post #8

I think the part that shocks me the most is the fact that he has a client who is willing to pay him at this rate for 3 hours. I can see the benefits of doing this, but lets be frank here unless you're good and have the proof to back up the rate then you'll be laughed at by everyone for charging so much and be undercut. It's more than obvious Sam is more than just mediocre and can justify this hourly fee, I wish I cou…

You can and should charge at least $225/hour if you are a competent software person. There are far less competent software people then there are mediocre lawyers, and mediocre lawyers can charge $225/hour.

HN's patio11 (if memory serves) has made a strong case in the past for charging by the day or by the week or by the job ... pretty much anything other than by the hour. Ex.: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2909480

Re: One Thousand Dollars an Hour

#28

Post by robryan »

The challenge is to fill hours at a rate like that. Sure if you don't need to consult at all and you manage to fill a few hours a month at this rate then power to you.

For most freelancers though, they need to fill a lot more hours.

Re: One Thousand Dollars an Hour

#29

Post by danso »

vegas wrote: post #23
MBlume wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not that you're necessarily wrong, but you've only addressed supply, not demand.

"The main reason for the rapid growth is a large increase in the demand for computer software." http://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/s... http://www.bls.gov/ooh/legal/lawyers.htm

How is the stock photo for the software dev page not yet a meme?

Re: One Thousand Dollars an Hour

#30

Post by joering2 »

rprasad wrote: post #26

Holy cow. If CheddarApp justifies a $1000/hour rate, then good programmers could easily justify $100k/hour or better. Lawyers who handle multimillion dollar deals can justify $1000/hour. Security specialists can justify $1000/hour. Some guy who makes a mediocre todo list application can't.

You don't get it. he can charge whatever he wants to. Nothing stops him for charging $10,000 per hour, just like Lady Gaga or Biber or some other crazy POPular artist would.

Its really not about how much he asks; its about how many people can answer it. He tries to go against the current and assume 1 gig at $1,000/hr is better than 5 gigs at $200. It makes sense. I would love to see people paying for my work 5x more than average, I think I would be more excited too.

Also the guy doesnt seem cocky. He mentioned twice that this is too much to pay anyways.

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