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.
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.
Curious question re: your personal experience, is there a relationship (direct or inverse) between max_rate and interesting work? Or are they independent?
At your level, and with your specific focus, I've no idea what the market looks like. I.e. Big Boring Corp pays best? Cutting edge startup? Or effectively random?
Yes: the higher your rate, the more interesting the work you're likely to get, because higher rates filter the most tedious clients. Routine security work from big companies gets bid through procurement departments that won't pay high rates, so if a big company is paying the market rate for cryptography work, there's a really good chance the group paying for it really knows what they're doing and why they're engaging you.
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.
...I wouldn't call myself a world class crypto expert...
Of course not: crypto doesn't mean what you think it does, anymore ;) But hey, some blockchains do use scrypt, so that's there too. https://archive.is/jS7wJ
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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.
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.
Curious question re: your personal experience, is there a relationship (direct or inverse) between max_rate and interesting work? Or are they independent?
At your level, and with your specific focus, I've no idea what the market looks like. I.e. Big Boring Corp pays best? Cutting edge startup? Or effectively random?
Yes: the higher your rate, the more interesting the work you're likely to get, because higher rates filter the most tedious clients. Routine security work from big companies gets bid through procurement departments that won't pay high rates, so if a big company is paying the market rate for cryptography work, there's a really good chance the group paying for it really knows what they're doing and why they're engaging you.
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.
Significant? I'd say tectonic.
The first-ever to find AWS-wide chink in the Amazon armor? https://www.daemonology.net/blog/2008-12-18-AWS-signature-ve...
Demonstrator of OG Spectre exploit before Google Project Zero got on the train a decade later? https://www.daemonology.net/hyperthreading-considered-harmfu...
Of course not: crypto doesn't mean what you think it does, anymore ;) But hey, some blockchains do use scrypt, so that's there too. https://archive.is/jS7wJ
Remember that your rack rate as a consultant should be way more than your FTE salary, often more than 2x as much.