A few days ago, I received an email as below, regarding what I charge as a freelancer:
I've just had a quick look at your profile... Are you happy with that hourly rate?
It is always a good idea to compare profiles with other freelancers. The client will - for sure!
Maybe that caught me off guard and/or when I was in a less than genial mood, but it ticked me off with it's implication/insinuation that that for which I'm asking is too much (as can be seen by my response, which might be a bit strong [although I'm not known as The Snark without good reason]):
No, I am definitely not happy with that rate. (I'd like to charge more, but experience has taught me that customers don't appreciate the skill, effort and expertise I put in, so I can't actually charge what I think my work is worth. Besides, I'm not exactly comfortable with trying to justify to people why I'm taking large sums of money from them simply for typing magic incantations and resizing images, which almost any primate with enough aptitude, time and energy can learn to do if it is so inclined. Capitalism is a system of theft, but everyone in it or used to it agrees that stealing from other people — as opposed to generating wealth — is the best system we've got for what is commonly known as "making" money.)
I do quality work of/to which I am proud to put my name. I'm thorough and meticulous and not prepared to compromise (to do a slap-dash/rushed job just to get something out and get paid). Quality and integrity comes at a premium cost. If a client understands that, they'll be prepared to pay a higher price than if they just want some second-rate, self-taught weekend coder sitting in his bedroom and having a go after getting high. I'm not interested in working for people who're prepared to pay less and get inferior workmanship. I consider myself an artisan chef, not a grease monkey in some back alley fast food joint or greasy spoon.
"Faire de la bonne cuisine demande un certain temps. Si on vous fait attendre, c'est pour mieux vous servir, et vous plaire." [Good cooking takes time. If you are made to wait, it is to serve you better, and to please you.]
— Menu of Restaurant Antoine, New Orleans (as quoted by Frederick P. Brooks in The Mythical Man Month: Essays on Software Engineering (1975); Chapter 2: The Mythical Man Month; Pp. Pg. 13
"Observe that for the programmer, as for the chef, the urgency of the patron may govern the scheduled completion of the task, but it cannot govern the actual completion. An omelette, promised [to be ready] in two minutes, may appear to be progressing nicely. But when it has not set in two minutes, the customer has two choices — wait or eat it raw. Software customers have the same choices.
The cook has another choice; he can turn up the heat. The result is often an omelette nothing can save — burned in one part, raw in another.
Now I do not think software managers [or developers] have less inherent courage and firmness than [French] chefs, nor than other engineering managers. But false scheduling to match the patron's desired date is much more common in our discipline than elsewhere in engineering. It is very difficult to make a vigorous, plausible and job-risking defense of an estimate that is derived by no quantitative method, supported by little data, and certified chiefly by the hunches of the managers [and developers]."
— Ibid; "Gutless Estimating"; Pp. Pg 21
