Key point is in your opening, "I used to work in software training. WE charged $4k/day" which would lead me to believe this was a company and not a person. In that instance, training, it makes complete sense to charge those kinds of rates.
My point about $30k a week is that if ONE person walked into a room and said, "Hi, I'm Bob, this is what I do and my rate is $30k a week" it wouldn't fly very far. Now, If ONE person walked into a room and said, "Hi, I'm Bob, this is what I do and it's going to cost you $30k" is very different, whether it takes 30 minutes, one week or a year.
From my experience, many people read Patrick's blog and similar blogs to try and understand the economics of how to make more money as an independent developer. At some point this stuff becomes more about luck than it is about actual development economics. The boring companies most developers have the "privilege" of working with just don't have the ability to make these connections and justify budgets like this, worded in the context of "this is my rate per week"
The company was two people, then three. That's all the bigger it was. You can do the same thing as a one-person company. The distinction isn't that large. (I did not make that much money but first, I was a special case and second, this is about price, not about wages.)
And I do think this advice is applicable to non-training stuff, but Patrick already wrote about it at length so I won't get into that here :)
> whether it takes 30 minutes, one week or a year.
Ah, sorry, I misunderstood. Thanks for clarifying.
My point about $30k a week is that if ONE person walked into a room and said, "Hi, I'm Bob, this is what I do and my rate is $30k a week" it wouldn't fly very far. Now, If ONE person walked into a room and said, "Hi, I'm Bob, this is what I do and it's going to cost you $30k" is very different, whether it takes 30 minutes, one week or a year.
From my experience, many people read Patrick's blog and similar blogs to try and understand the economics of how to make more money as an independent developer. At some point this stuff becomes more about luck than it is about actual development economics. The boring companies most developers have the "privilege" of working with just don't have the ability to make these connections and justify budgets like this, worded in the context of "this is my rate per week"