rday

Is Strava really being greedy here? Last year at this time, software developers were jumping ship in every company to get huge raises at other companies. Salaries went through the roof. Now many tech companies are laying folks off.

What other options are there when you staff demands huge raises or leaves for greener pastures?

Flyover also helped me connect with groups that I would see riding in other directions. Since flyover was made opt-in, I haven't gotten any use out of it.

Opt-in is probably a really good idea, even though it killed the feature. I really liked that feature. But yea, it was too easy to abuse.

Are you able to see any frequent routes using the global heat map?

I did, and it was! I was short on time. I think stretching to 5 days would be perfect. I missed a lot of really cool towns due to time constraints. But that just means I can do it again and have a totally new experience :)

> I. How do you calculate a price for what you do?

Work in the industry you want to freelance in first. This way you find out how much clients value your work. Then you know what to charge.

> II. How do you write a proposal?

Work in the industry you want to freelance in first. Learn how the proposal writers do their job and what clients expect to see. Improve on it.

> III. How do you draft a contract?

With a lawyer who has experience in the industry you want to freelance in.

I supported a family freelancing for a long time, about 6 years. It's terrible. If you are unsure of how to do something, you have to wonder what value you are really adding. Learn it first. Then execute it as a freelancer.

I'd really like to see a study specific to female happiness with children. I live in the US, and I think men and women's experience with children is entirely different.

When my wife worked, she missed our kids tremendously. Almost 75% of her take home went to day care. She was pretty miserable.

Now she stays home. She gets a lot of off-hand comments from other friends with kids about "how bored they would be if they stayed home". Or from friends without kids about "how they feel like they are doing something with their lives".

Now she feels like she isn't doing enough with her life.

Maybe she needs thicker skin, or maybe the societal pressure for women is immense.

Men working is expected by society. IME, the dads I know who stay home get more of an "awesome bro!" type response when they say they stay home.

I just feel like no matter what I do, I will feel happy with kids. No matter what my wife does, she feels like it isn't good enough.

[Edit: so many links to books! I've exhausted my audible credits for the month. Thanks for the support!]

Pushing him out wouldn't be too hard? This sounds like a peach of a work environment.

I'm in a situation like this right now actually. However, I'm the lazy developer. All situations are different though, so I doubt I could help much with specifics.

My advice would be to work your hardest to understand this other person's point of view. Maybe they don't realize something that you do. Maybe the communication is bad. Maybe you need to rage it out for 10 minutes to find out, honestly, where the communication lapse is.

Unless they are just out drinking instead of working, it is very possible they are just not in the right place (in life) to work in a startup. That is a hard thing to admit in this climate, but it is very common.

As a bitter old dev with many failed startups behind me, I find this a tad insulting. This isn't an attack response, but maybe I can provide some perspective from the other side.

I work really hard. I organize multiple meetups. I give talks. I do open source(not well, but I try). I have a full time job making way more than the "status quo" working from my basement.

"Founders" are very quick to discard all of this, and ask me to put my full efforts into their idea for this equity concept. They tend to provide no incentive other than how their idea is the one that will make it.

I'm very motivated. Especially when I see the results of my years of effort everyday. Why throw this all away to work on somebody else's vision of success?

I agree with what you're saying, and this is probably why I don't hold a management position anywhere.

This also mirrors my experience with startups. I've been lied to about money many times to get me to keep working. The only things the owners care about is how they look to investors.

I would love to see your consulting model. You speak as if keeping a full sales pipeline while making multiple clients happy is a simple thing.

I'll agree that a single person consultancy is 0 risk. I can accept a job offer tomorrow and stop accepting new clients.

But growing your consultancy is just as risky as any other business, if not more so. You don't have a wide range of low paying clients, like a SaaS model. You have a few high paying clients. Any one of them leaving (or not paying) directly affects you and your employees.

I live in Washington DC, so I see this constantly. A large government contractor loses a re-bid on a contract, and they fire the team that was working on it. Fire them!

Not speaking for anyone else, but having to fire people every time a contract goes away sounds risky to me.

I've been running my "consultancy" for over 5 years. Roughly 15% of my annual revenue is lost to non-payment. Customers pay late all the time. Literally. I've never had an invoice paid on time. Customers cancel projects right before they start, or pause projects half way through to focus on other areas.

Due to these situations, I try to always have 3 months of salary in the bank. I never do, but I try. If you are paid net 30, and invoice at the end of the January, that check will clear your bank account early March at best. This results in Just In Time mortgage payments.

If I were to hire somebody to code, and focus on sales, I'd need even more money in the bank than I have. This leaves me in a bit of a pickle.

You need a lot of capital. If 3 months of buffer salary for two employees isn't a lot of capital..... it's time to admit you are in a strong financial position and not everyone can simply be an entrepreneur.

(To answer the inevitable "charge more" question, I'm available for hire and I'll charge as much as you'd like :)

Why was it stupid to turn down something which you couldn't value, yet had to buy (in way of lower salary or more hours or whatever it was) ?

> Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

So what is the lesson here? I hear this saying over and over, always with the implication of "Give them a pass". Who cares if they are being crooked, or are too dumb to do division. Either way, the employee loses.