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One Thousand Dollars an Hour

samsoff.es

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Re: One Thousand Dollars an Hour

#81

Post by brazzy »

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…

Actually my guess is that he honestly doesn't really want any consulting gigs and previously wasn't advertising a rate, but due to his involvement with some high profile projects got a constant stream of offers he brushed off by quoting ridiculously high rates, then found out that some would accept those rates and some of the projects were genuinely interesting.

Re: One Thousand Dollars an Hour

#82

Post by brazzy »

knwang wrote: post #58
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.

The OP didn't say the Cheddar App justifies the rate. He/she just said he/she would rather use the (high) rate to weed out boring projects to focus on his/her own projects And he/she doesn't have to justify that rate to everyone. If people hire him/her at that rate, it's justified. a bit off topic.. but I found this he/she thing really annoying.

I have to wonder though: are projects whose managers are willing to pay $1000/h really more likely to be exciting than others?

Re: One Thousand Dollars an Hour

#84

Post by xentronium »

epochwolf wrote: post #68
oinksoft wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's wrong with using Rails to run your blog? If your website is built on a given web framework, it is often more sensible to run the blog on that than to introduce a standalone blog engine.

Because you can use octopress and only have to serve static files. https://github.com/epochwolf/epochwolf.com

From README:

> This is my new blog in Rails 3.1. I moved my blog to Jekyll a few months ago and really missed playing with a Rails app, so I'm moving it back and starting from scratch.

Re: One Thousand Dollars an Hour

#86

Post by hk_kh »

I still remember when I decided to go from 10$/h to 50$/h on freelancing, and besides earning more, started to get better and more serious clients. Nothing compared to 1k/h, but still reminds me of something important:

The first thing to accomplish a goal is believing it.

(also, there will almost always be someone ready to pay any amount you ask, the best approach is an equation that maximize income/clients and minimize hours)

Re: One Thousand Dollars an Hour

#87

Post by CaptainZapp »

noonespecial wrote: post #41

Usually, when you get to the stage where you charge this kind of money, you are really charging not for the work, but all of the work that you've done before and the experience that came with it. An hour with someone worth their salt can easily save you 20 hours paying the $50/hour developer types. You don't hire these guys to build your project, just to point you in the right direction. The real question is "does th…

There's an anexdote for that:

woman is strolling through a local park, when she happens upon Pablo Picasso sitting on a bench. Struck by her good fortune, she summons the courage to speak to him.

“Excuse me. You’re Pablo Picasso right?”

The man smiles.

“Would it be possible to have you sketch my portrait? I’ll pay.”

Picasso accepts the offer.

He considers the woman carefully for a few moments and then takes out a pen and paper. He quickly sketches a single line on the page.

He takes one last look at the page and hands it to the woman.

“That’s incredible!” She says. “You’ve managed to capture my essence in a single stroke of the pen.” “That will be $5,000,” Picasso replies.

“$5,000? But it only took you seconds to draw it!”

“Actually, my dear, it took me my whole life.”

(from http://morethanaliving.com/2007/03/20/pablo-picasso-anecdote...

Re: One Thousand Dollars an Hour

#88

Post by btilly »

knwang wrote: post #58
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.

The OP didn't say the Cheddar App justifies the rate. He/she just said he/she would rather use the (high) rate to weed out boring projects to focus on his/her own projects And he/she doesn't have to justify that rate to everyone. If people hire him/her at that rate, it's justified. a bit off topic.. but I found this he/she thing really annoying.

a bit off topic.. but I found this he/she thing really annoying.

Then use singular they. See http://motivatedgrammar.wordpress.com/2009/09/10/singular-th... for verification that this is acceptable English.

Re: One Thousand Dollars an Hour

#89

Post by ladon86 »

CaptainZapp wrote: post #87
noonespecial wrote: post #41

Usually, when you get to the stage where you charge this kind of money, you are really charging not for the work, but all of the work that you've done before and the experience that came with it. An hour with someone worth their salt can easily save you 20 hours paying the $50/hour developer types. You don't hire these guys to build your project, just to point you in the right direction. The real question is "does th…

There's an anexdote for that: woman is strolling through a local park, when she happens upon Pablo Picasso sitting on a bench. Struck by her good fortune, she summons the courage to speak to him. “Excuse me. You’re Pablo Picasso right?” The man smiles. “Would it be possible to have you sketch my portrait? I’ll pay.” Picasso accepts the offer. He considers the woman carefully for a few moments and then takes out a pen…

This kind of dynamic exists in a few professions.

About a year ago I was locked out of my house and had to call an emergency locksmith - the cost was around $150. He turned up and inserted a piece of rigid plastic into the gap between door and frame, opening the lock. The process took 5 seconds, and I immediately realized that, given the knowledge that this would work, I could have opened the door myself using a credit card. But I didn't possess that knowledge, and the value of gaining access to my home was worth what I paid. I had paid not for hours worked, but for experience.

Re: One Thousand Dollars an Hour

#90

Post by kayoone »

I know a similar thing from top online poker players. Many of them offered training lessons for ridiculous rates simply because they would make more money playing the same time, so why bother teaching people for a lesser hourly rate ?

Other successfull players still took these lesseons at these very high rates simply because these top players were the only ones able to help them improve their games and this was worth thousands to them, as they already were making alot of money.

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