--- title: "Mind Rates" url: "https://osherove.com/blog/2003/5/11/mind-rates.md" canonical: "https://osherove.com/blog/2003/5/11/mind-rates.html" published: "2003-05-11T03:58:00" updated: "2003-05-11T03:58:00" tags: ["Blogging", "Off Topic"] author: "Roy Osherove" description: "Duncan Replies to my post about Chris Pirillo: \" I need some work done, whether that is easy or hard for the person I hire isn't relevant... and if they answer my question too quickly that certainly shouldn't be a…" usage: "Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page)." license: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" --- # Mind Rates By Roy Osherove May 11, 2003 In [Blogging](https://osherove.com/blog/category/blogging), [Off Topic](https://osherove.com/blog/category/off-topic) **Historical article** · Originally published May 11, 2003; technical details may be outdated. Duncan [Replies](http://dotnetweblogs.com/duncanma/posts/6859.aspx) to [my post](http://dotnetweblogs.com/rosherove/posts/6550.aspx) about Chris Pirillo: "_I need some work done, whether that is easy or hard for the person I hire isn't relevant... and if they answer my question too quickly that certainly shouldn't be a problem either._" " _if, on the other hand, you want someone to actually dig up an answer to your question (and whether that is easy or hard for them isn't relevant) then you should have to pay._" I have no problem with having to pay for work, nor with how quickly I get a reply. Chris's know-how with technology automatically makes him a tech-support guru candidate and I have no wish that he does all his answering pro-bono. What I **was** saying is that charging 27$ flat out, no matter what , is not the way to go IMHO. **Example**: If you were to go to the auto mechanic for a problem you have in your car, And you have no idea what the extent of the problem is , how easy or hard it is to fix, or what would it cost, and when you ask the mechanic for the cost he says "_that'll be 200$, no questions asked, flat rate_". You'll say "_cool! I might have a very big problem. I might save on this one!"_ and then he goes and you see him turning a small knob in your car to the right, and everything is suddenly fine. Would you feel cheated out of a 100$? Wouldnt you feel that the guy could(should) have said "look, it's a real simple thing, 10 seconds and I'm done. It'll cost you only 20$" ? I know I expect this kind of courtesy when I go to any professional.  What if the mechanic had to replace the whole engine, doing a 3-day work just on your car. Do you think he'll still charge you the flat rate? Or will he say "_Look, it was a real b\*tch to fix, it'll cost you 2000$_"? My point was that Chris should have lower rates for easier questions and higher rates for harder questions. That's all. ## More in Blogging [All posts in Blogging](https://osherove.com/blog/category/blogging) - May 27, 2003 ### [BlogWear](https://osherove.com/blog/2003/5/27/blogwear.html) - May 18, 2003 ### [When Blogs Go Commercial](https://osherove.com/blog/2003/5/18/when-blogs-go-commercial.html) - May 9, 2003 ### [Enlightenment](https://osherove.com/blog/2003/5/9/enlightenment.html) - May 6, 2003 ### [Chris Pirillo Sells His Mind](https://osherove.com/blog/2003/5/6/chris-pirillo-sells-his-mind.html) --- ## About the author **Roy Osherove**: Senior Solutions Architect at AWS working on AI for production and AI-driven development; author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership, with about 20 years of consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery. ### Sites - [RobotPaper](https://robotpaper.ai/): This blog: AI patterns and anti-patterns, AI and coding agents, and engineering leadership. - [osherove.com](https://osherove.com): Roy's personal site. Author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership; consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery, plus about 20 years of blog posts. - [The Art of Unit Testing](https://www.artofunittesting.com): The Art of Unit Testing, 3rd Edition (Manning): readable, maintainable, trustworthy unit tests, plus TDD workshops in C#, JavaScript, Java and Kotlin. - [5whys.com](https://www.5whys.com): Roy's writing on software team leadership: self-organizing teams, surviving chaos, learning mode and the Elastic Leadership model. - [Pipeline Driven](https://pipelinedriven.org): Continuous delivery and DevOps practices: build patterns, pipeline-friendly testing, DevOps metrics and enterprise DevOps. - [Elastic Leadership](https://www.elasticleadership.com): Elastic Leadership, Roy's framework for software team leaders (survival, learning and self-organizing modes). ### Social - X: https://x.com/royosherove - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/osherove/ ### Contact - Contact form: https://forms.gle/jQSx5KoXvrVA1JCK7 ### License Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page). License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/