Indeed, it seems I greatly under-estimated the amount of money the author is making. He indicates elsewhere that he made $140k in the first quarter of 2014 alon

Indeed, it seems I greatly under-estimated the amount of money the author is making. He indicates elsewhere that he made $140k in the first quarter of 2014 alone. Annualized, this is far, far beyond what most freelancers are going to make (and indeed far beyond what most programmers in general will make). He also clarified that he isn't a consultant. He sells ebooks, which continue to sell even when he's not working, so he still derives an income during his off-time. In this case, I have to say, though, that the article isn't very useful. Someone with a potential income of >$500k/year, much of which is passive, has so many more options than 99% of people. I suspect the vast majority of the commenters here didn't realize the author was making this much money and also mistook him for a freelance programmer.