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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 comme

by johnnyg 14y ago

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 arrogance behind it won't make meaning over the mid or long terms. 3. 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 hoping he gets enough press to get enough people to put $20 on the table to build out that spartan feature set. 4. Employers can pay what they want. In the end, if someone thinks they can get ROI on $1000 an hour, why not. God bless America, right?

cageface 14y ago
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.
- Falling3 14y ago
  I'm an android user and I don't know the man or the app. Is this really his only feather?
  - mintplant 14y ago
    According to the About page [1], he created one of the first third-party iOS apps [2] which now has usage numbers in the millions, worked at the creators [3] of Hipstamatic [4] (a fairly well-known iOS app), has contributed a sizeable amount of open-source code [5], and has worked on a number of other projects [6]. [1] http://samsoff.es/about http://samsoff.es/about [2] http://www.youversion.com/mobile http://www.youversion.com/mobile [3] http://heysynthetic.com/ http://heysynthetic.com/ [4] http://hipstamatic.com/ http://hipstamatic.com/ [5] https://github.com/samsoffes https://github.com/samsoffes [6] http://samsoff.es/projects http://samsoff.es/projects
- ruswick 14y ago
  I agree. There are people with far superior resumes who will work for less. Frankly, I think he realizes that he won't get much work charging what he is going to charge. This seems to be a publicity stunt and nothing more.
- mikeash 14y ago
  What's the worst that could happen? Nobody wants to hire him for that rate? Sounds like he'd be perfectly happy with that outcome.
suresk 14y ago
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.
- delinka 14y ago
  "...justify an hourly rate of $1000 (or even 1/4 that)" No. He didn't justify anything. He's limiting the type of clients that talk to him. Point: "This rate is designed to weed out less serious clients. [...] If anyone hires me to write code for $1000/hr, they are wasting their money."
  - ruswick 14y ago
    You're missing the point. Clients can't justify hiring him for such an exorbitant rate because his claim to fame is somewhat mediocre.
    - aangjie 14y ago
      But isn't that the Clients' problem?. His blog post is very clear, he claims he has some specific optimization skills on iOS apps and they're worth $1000.I have no idea or experience on iOS to judge whether he's right. Also do note, he may have other references that vouch for his skillset(optimization of iOS apps.
brazzy 14y ago
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.

by johnnyg 14y ago

cageface 14y ago

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.

Falling3 14y ago
I'm an android user and I don't know the man or the app. Is this really his only feather?
- mintplant 14y ago
  According to the About page [1], he created one of the first third-party iOS apps [2] which now has usage numbers in the millions, worked at the creators [3] of Hipstamatic [4] (a fairly well-known iOS app), has contributed a sizeable amount of open-source code [5], and has worked on a number of other projects [6]. [1] http://samsoff.es/about http://samsoff.es/about [2] http://www.youversion.com/mobile http://www.youversion.com/mobile [3] http://heysynthetic.com/ http://heysynthetic.com/ [4] http://hipstamatic.com/ http://hipstamatic.com/ [5] https://github.com/samsoffes https://github.com/samsoffes [6] http://samsoff.es/projects http://samsoff.es/projects
ruswick 14y ago
I agree. There are people with far superior resumes who will work for less. Frankly, I think he realizes that he won't get much work charging what he is going to charge. This seems to be a publicity stunt and nothing more.
mikeash 14y ago
What's the worst that could happen? Nobody wants to hire him for that rate? Sounds like he'd be perfectly happy with that outcome.

suresk 14y ago

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.

delinka 14y ago
"...justify an hourly rate of $1000 (or even 1/4 that)" No. He didn't justify anything. He's limiting the type of clients that talk to him. Point: "This rate is designed to weed out less serious clients. [...] If anyone hires me to write code for $1000/hr, they are wasting their money."
- ruswick 14y ago
  You're missing the point. Clients can't justify hiring him for such an exorbitant rate because his claim to fame is somewhat mediocre.
  - aangjie 14y ago
    But isn't that the Clients' problem?. His blog post is very clear, he claims he has some specific optimization skills on iOS apps and they're worth $1000.I have no idea or experience on iOS to judge whether he's right. Also do note, he may have other references that vouch for his skillset(optimization of iOS apps.

brazzy 14y ago

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.