As a practical matter: If I were a full time consultant I probably would charge more, but I would also be spending some of my time making sure I had a full pipeline of gigs lined up. The fact that my marketing process is about as lean as it gets -- people send me emails from time to time -- means I don't have to cover that sort of overhead.
If I had cryptography work, I would! My strategy is to go way out of my way to make sure I don't have cryptography work to bid out. :)
The fact that you're not booked wall-to-wall while underbidding the market for the expertise you're selling to this extent should be a lesson to everyone about price competition.
You're happy! I'm not criticizing you. I'm literally just saying that your rate is a steal. It is way, way under the market. People should take you up on it.
Reading between the lines here too, but worth emphasizing "anything which particularly piques my interest" & "would also be spending some of my time making sure I had a full pipeline of gigs lined up."
Correct me if I'm wrong Colin, but I'm assuming some of the discount between max_rate and your rate is the value you see in not having to spend time on boring projects and hustling a constant stream of gigs. Aka discount for quality of life and work.
I've made significant contributions to a few areas but I wouldn't call myself a world class crypto expert. For most projects I could name a dozen experts I would consult before myself.
Feel free to steal from me. ;-)
As a practical matter: If I were a full time consultant I probably would charge more, but I would also be spending some of my time making sure I had a full pipeline of gigs lined up. The fact that my marketing process is about as lean as it gets -- people send me emails from time to time -- means I don't have to cover that sort of overhead.
If I had cryptography work, I would! My strategy is to go way out of my way to make sure I don't have cryptography work to bid out. :)
The fact that you're not booked wall-to-wall while underbidding the market for the expertise you're selling to this extent should be a lesson to everyone about price competition.
You're happy! I'm not criticizing you. I'm literally just saying that your rate is a steal. It is way, way under the market. People should take you up on it.
Reading between the lines here too, but worth emphasizing "anything which particularly piques my interest" & "would also be spending some of my time making sure I had a full pipeline of gigs lined up."
Correct me if I'm wrong Colin, but I'm assuming some of the discount between max_rate and your rate is the value you see in not having to spend time on boring projects and hustling a constant stream of gigs. Aka discount for quality of life and work.
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To give a reference point, you get the equivalent of $300/hr starting around L6 at a FAANG: https://www.levels.fyi
I don't think most people realize they can hire a putnam winner and world class crypto expert for the price of a staff engineer.
a Putnam winner
Only once. ;-)
and world class crypto expert
I've made significant contributions to a few areas but I wouldn't call myself a world class crypto expert. For most projects I could name a dozen experts I would consult before myself.
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Remember that your rack rate as a consultant should be way more than your FTE salary, often more than 2x as much.
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