5 ms·

Let's say you make $10 / hr. To break even, a $20 tool needs to save you 2h a month. Divided over 20 workdays and it must save you 6m per day. If a tool can'

Let's say you make $10 / hr. To break even, a $20 tool needs to save you 2h a month. Divided over 20 workdays and it must save you 6m per day. If a tool can't save you 10-15m per day, it doesn't deserve a "throughout the day" slot IMHO. Which isn't to say that ChatGPT fits that bill for me - I think it requires too much supervision to save time. But people are too cheap about genuinely useful tools.

dzikimarian 4y ago
For me problem with many tools is subscription model, not that I have to pay. You build your workflow around a few subscription tools, then something bad happens. You need to cut expenses. Apart from shitty situation in general, your workflow falls apart and you're unhappy about lowered standard of living, making it more probable to further worsen your life. It simply feels bad.
speleding 4y ago
That works out if you are a freelancer. Otherwise the $20 comes out of your pocket, and the productivity gains go to your employer.
- distances 4y ago
  The monetary aspect doesn't apply for many (most?) freelancers either. I work and bill the same amount of time every day regardless of how much I achieved. Brain fog day is worth the same as an uninterrupted flow day. It does make me more efficient which is something I do care about.
schwartzworld 4y ago
If you're paid by the hour like that, doesn't saving 2 hours per week mean you are getting paid $20 less per week? It's the opposite. A salaried developer on an agile team commits to a certain amount of work per sprint. If they can get it done in 2 hours less time, that's a net gain for the developer.
adamsmith143 4y ago
If anyone on this site working as a Dev is making 10/hr I question whether they can even navigate to the ChatGPT website by themselves in the first place. At a real number like 50/hr you only need to save 1.2 minutes per working day for it to break even. Which is trivially easy. You could save that by having ChatGPT write your emails for you alone.

dzikimarian 4y ago

For me problem with many tools is subscription model, not that I have to pay. You build your workflow around a few subscription tools, then something bad happens. You need to cut expenses. Apart from shitty situation in general, your workflow falls apart and you're unhappy about lowered standard of living, making it more probable to further worsen your life. It simply feels bad.

speleding 4y ago

That works out if you are a freelancer. Otherwise the $20 comes out of your pocket, and the productivity gains go to your employer.

distances 4y ago
The monetary aspect doesn't apply for many (most?) freelancers either. I work and bill the same amount of time every day regardless of how much I achieved. Brain fog day is worth the same as an uninterrupted flow day. It does make me more efficient which is something I do care about.

schwartzworld 4y ago

If you're paid by the hour like that, doesn't saving 2 hours per week mean you are getting paid $20 less per week? It's the opposite. A salaried developer on an agile team commits to a certain amount of work per sprint. If they can get it done in 2 hours less time, that's a net gain for the developer.

adamsmith143 4y ago

If anyone on this site working as a Dev is making 10/hr I question whether they can even navigate to the ChatGPT website by themselves in the first place. At a real number like 50/hr you only need to save 1.2 minutes per working day for it to break even. Which is trivially easy. You could save that by having ChatGPT write your emails for you alone.