Captain’s log, stardate 20221004
Fellow list member Noel Rivas Cárdenas wrote in to share a pricing win that drove home the insanity of trading time for money (shared with permission):
Jonathan,
I know you know this and that I’m preaching to the choir director and record producer here. I guess this is just an emphatic acknowledgement of your hourly billing is nuts point.
Man, hourly billing really is bonkers. Today I realized that a small fix for an app that I offered at a fixed price could be solved more efficiently than I previously thought. Since I offered at a fixed price, having found a more efficient solution will increase my reward and deliver results to the client faster. In the hourly model, I would have just charged a couple hours and resented my brain for being clever (which actually happened, on the same project, some time ago).
I don’t want to resent my brain for being clever! 😂
Noel Rivas Cárdenas
That’s right folks...
If you’re trading time for money, eventually you’ll start to resent your brain for being clever.
Why would anyone want that?
Yours,
—J