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What being ripped off taught me

belief.horse

1–10 of 247 posts

Re: What being ripped off taught me

#4
> A contract is toilet paper

It isn't, but you can't get blood from a stone and squeezing costs money.

It sounds like the entity that the contract is with has no real assets and/or is based in a jurisdiction which is hard to enforce judgements in. That's a case where you need to get paid up-front, which is the real lesson in this article.

Re: What being ripped off taught me

#5
> They were carpetbaggers and dilettantes convinced by their own inexperience and the advice of a onetime VJ that they could pull off something I’d twice helped quote to be brought home by a cadre of hardened killers with shitloads of math and know-how at eye-watering prices. They were way way way over their heads and were in no way interested in updating their priors in light of the shit they were swimming in.

And yet, somehow, you gave them the most important time you had for their promises.

Re: What being ripped off taught me

#8
Contract terms can vary greatly depending on the situation and the company you’re working with.

Early/frequent payment terms are always good to have but you may not always have the leverage for it depending on where you’re at as a contractor.

Takes getting ripped off a times before insisting on better terms I guess. It’s like bombing your first job interview… you can prepare but it just needs to happen.

Re: What being ripped off taught me

#10
“A contract is toilet paper”

A little hyperbolic, but more accurate than not when laypeople think about contracts.

A contract isn’t a magic spell, it is a declaration of shared understanding that can be used for clarity and in legal proceedings.

If you think of a contract as a way to ensure you get what you agreed, yes, it is toilet paper, because a contract doesn’t remove counterparty risk.

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