[deleted]
Pixels Don’t Care (2013)
31–40 of 106 posts
Re: Pixels Don’t Care (2013)
#32Was anyone else distracted by the lack of apostrophes? I guess semantically they aren't necessary since there is no missing information but for some reason I found it distracting anyway.
Because it is an extract of the original page. This is the correct link, including the apostrophes.. http://warpspire.com/posts/pixels-dont-care
Re: Pixels Don’t Care (2013)
#33As an amateur programmer and a part-time freelancer, I didn't have a slightest clue about the value of my work. It was only 5-6 years back when I gladly did small gigs on Want-to-Hire forums for tens of dollars.
One particular gig was about scrapping data from a car sales website which I completed for $30 (should have cost at least 10x). The client discussed about the possibility of converting the phone numbers, which were obfuscated as plain images, to plain text. Without ado, I fired up my editor to explore the problem. It proved to atrociously difficult as I didn't have any background in anything similar but with the help from my brother, I was able to make a scrappy algorithm that worked.
I reported back my progress and asked for additional $25 for it but the client refused, saying that he hadn't given his final say. I was dejected but felt foolish more than anything else. Looking back, I can't help think how anyone would pain in giving something as meagre as $25 (at least, for someone in United States) for a someone's hard work.
If there is one thing I can glean from my story and author's is that businesses, at least most of them, are ruthless. It doesn't matter who runs them, it's just an unspoken rule that you don't give what you don't owe. You don't shower sympathy or, do things that aren't in business' best interest (long term / short term). The only thing you can—and should—do is be ruthless yourself. Negotiate for more confidently. Move on if you're undervalued. Never think of owing anything to any entity.
Re: Pixels Don’t Care (2013)
#34... But we care about pixels. Particularly the few that make up apostrophes.
Read the original: http://warpspire.com/posts/pixels-dont-care
Re: Pixels Don’t Care (2013)
#35Just like in sports, you get paid more for what you have done vs what you could do. Having a few really good pieces of work to show off is no guarantee that you'll consistently pump out good work, or that you haven't left clients high and dry before. Since a third party has no real way of gauging that except by your track record, they're taking more of a chance on someone with less of a track record. More risk means…
I honestly do not think most of us could.
I hand out with three groups of people: geeks, hacks and lawyers. All of them often easily think they could easily do any other job. This includes the lawyers and journalists thinking that making software is easy. Based on that, I think we're as deluded as they are.
Re: Pixels Don’t Care (2013)
#36[deleted]
Re: Pixels Don’t Care (2013)
#37Re: Pixels Don’t Care (2013)
#38As an amateur programmer and a part-time freelancer, I didn't have a slightest clue about the value of my work. It was only 5-6 years back when I gladly did small gigs on Want-to-Hire forums for tens of dollars. One particular gig was about scrapping data from a car sales website which I completed for $30 (should have cost at least 10x). The client discussed about the possibility of converting the phone numbers, whic…
Yeah, I'll agree as an American that $55 for code which can do primitive OCR is probably really, really cheap. Your client should have treated you better.
> The only thing you can—and should—do is be ruthless yourself. Negotiate for more confidently. Move on if you're undervalued.
Well, try not to think of it as being ruthless. Plenty of businesses do well by helping others do well, too. But, at the end of the day, you have bills to pay and a lifestyle to support: you have to preserve that.
Re: Pixels Don’t Care (2013)
#39Just like in sports, you get paid more for what you have done vs what you could do. Having a few really good pieces of work to show off is no guarantee that you'll consistently pump out good work, or that you haven't left clients high and dry before. Since a third party has no real way of gauging that except by your track record, they're taking more of a chance on someone with less of a track record. More risk means…
I honestly do not think most of us could. I hand out with three groups of people: geeks, hacks and lawyers. All of them often easily think they could easily do any other job. This includes the lawyers and journalists thinking that making software is easy. Based on that, I think we're as deluded as they are.
Agreed. I know that "fudiciary duty" is a thing, but not what it involves. There are laws about accounting standards, but I can't even say what standard accountants need to rech to know those standards. I only found put a year ago that, in the UK, the (director?) of a Limited company can become personally liable for company debts if they trade while insolvent.
Import and export laws? Nope. Which parts of an employment contract are enforceable? Nope. Minimum standards for office temperature, cleanliness, health and safety? Nope. How much unpaid overtime you can make your employees do, and how that intersects with minimum wage rules. Nope.
Copyright, trademark and patent laws I think I get, but I don't know them inside-out.
Re: Pixels Don’t Care (2013)
#40Just like in sports, you get paid more for what you have done vs what you could do. Having a few really good pieces of work to show off is no guarantee that you'll consistently pump out good work, or that you haven't left clients high and dry before. Since a third party has no real way of gauging that except by your track record, they're taking more of a chance on someone with less of a track record. More risk means…
I honestly do not think most of us could. I hand out with three groups of people: geeks, hacks and lawyers. All of them often easily think they could easily do any other job. This includes the lawyers and journalists thinking that making software is easy. Based on that, I think we're as deluded as they are.
Perhaps there are a lot of people that are simply not very good at what they do, for instance because they don't care about doing a good job. If you then care about doing a good job, then there are a lot of jobs you can already do better than the people currently doing them. You will never be as good as the people with relevant training and experience that care about doing a good job, but you could be right that you could do a pretty good job.