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Comment by cperciva

4 years ago

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.

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cperciva

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tptacek  4 years ago

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.

  • ethbr0  4 years ago

    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.

    • tptacek  4 years ago

      Colin and I have both spent a very long time doing this kind of work. I promise, I'm factoring in the hustle premium when I say that he's significantly under-bidding the market.

      2 replies →

gfd  4 years ago

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.