4 ms·

Full-time programmers can be had for $50 to $100 per hour, but they can create millions of dollars of value, far in excess of what they're paid. Consultants are

by pdog 14y ago

Full-time programmers can be had for $50 to $100 per hour, but they can create millions of dollars of value, far in excess of what they're paid. Consultants are one of several groups of people who take a share of the difference.

loceng 14y ago
This is why I work for myself, am building my own company(ies). I knew I would never get paid the value I can bring to the table, and I would never be motivated to do my best in that scenario.
- loboman 14y ago
  If you do it right, you are never getting paid the value you provide. The model is always: generate value, get a slice of that, repeat. Think of a very rich person; if this person is so rich, it is because s/he provided much more value to others than the value it captured for him or herself. (Except for conmen)
  - pebb 14y ago
    Or banks
- tptacek 14y ago
  You think you could never get paid the value you bring to the table because you are imagining delivering services to the kinds of companies who would think to look at freelance markets to find the going rate for building code in the platforms you work in. But the world is full of businesses with absolutely no technical competence at all, and so much operational competence in their own field (health services, benefits consulting, reinsurance, whole animal butchering, whatever) that they could take over the world if someone anywhere would just notice the opportunity to scale their processes (lead gen, customer retention, supply chain, market expansion, franchising, customer service) with basic technology. To many, maybe most of those businesses, just being able to throw together a Bootstrap/Rails app makes you some kind of terrifying Wizard. If you can get over the urge to talk like a Wizard, and apply the customer service aptitude taught to every new employee at Nordstroms, you would probably find it's nowhere nearly as hard to capture the value of your work as you think it is. I'd also note: if you're incapable of convincing a tech-impaired local business to consider a value-priced engagement that will make or save them millions of dollars, you may have a hard time building your own company(ies). Maybe not, though! Totally possible to skip that step.
  - loceng 14y ago
    I agree with all that you say. Not sure about something though. I'm not sure you'd have access to the information that would allow you to discover/see the possibility of changes that could allow millions of dollars in positive changes. Also, I'm thinking in ranges of $10-$100 million+ per year ranges; Larger ecosystems, etc.. and to have such an influence in an existing company, where they'd be willing to pay you out anything other than bonus or work you're way up to a million-dollar salary, would require many many years working at said time, with lots of risk that you wouldn't be rewarded adequately.

by pdog 14y ago

loceng 14y ago

This is why I work for myself, am building my own company(ies). I knew I would never get paid the value I can bring to the table, and I would never be motivated to do my best in that scenario.

loboman 14y ago
If you do it right, you are never getting paid the value you provide. The model is always: generate value, get a slice of that, repeat. Think of a very rich person; if this person is so rich, it is because s/he provided much more value to others than the value it captured for him or herself. (Except for conmen)
- pebb 14y ago
  Or banks
tptacek 14y ago
You think you could never get paid the value you bring to the table because you are imagining delivering services to the kinds of companies who would think to look at freelance markets to find the going rate for building code in the platforms you work in. But the world is full of businesses with absolutely no technical competence at all, and so much operational competence in their own field (health services, benefits consulting, reinsurance, whole animal butchering, whatever) that they could take over the world if someone anywhere would just notice the opportunity to scale their processes (lead gen, customer retention, supply chain, market expansion, franchising, customer service) with basic technology. To many, maybe most of those businesses, just being able to throw together a Bootstrap/Rails app makes you some kind of terrifying Wizard. If you can get over the urge to talk like a Wizard, and apply the customer service aptitude taught to every new employee at Nordstroms, you would probably find it's nowhere nearly as hard to capture the value of your work as you think it is. I'd also note: if you're incapable of convincing a tech-impaired local business to consider a value-priced engagement that will make or save them millions of dollars, you may have a hard time building your own company(ies). Maybe not, though! Totally possible to skip that step.
- loceng 14y ago
  I agree with all that you say. Not sure about something though. I'm not sure you'd have access to the information that would allow you to discover/see the possibility of changes that could allow millions of dollars in positive changes. Also, I'm thinking in ranges of $10-$100 million+ per year ranges; Larger ecosystems, etc.. and to have such an influence in an existing company, where they'd be willing to pay you out anything other than bonus or work you're way up to a million-dollar salary, would require many many years working at said time, with lots of risk that you wouldn't be rewarded adequately.