30 Sleeps

This is a problem that I had down to the word ( except being able to give presentations, you got me on that ), and fixed.

Here is my short guide.

1: Read everything written here - http://30sleeps.com/blog/ , particularly the old stuff is relevant.

2: Find 2-3 groups of people who you know none of. Many people do this at university. This is a clean slate. Worst case, you never talk to these people again.

3: ( This plan does not involve becoming a drunk ) Booze. Varying quantities of it. In different situations. Watch how you act, if you act differently or get over your social anxiety, watch how you do it, and the results that you get.

4: Back to sober. Make an absolute fool of yourself being overconfident. Don't be a huge asshole, people do have feelings. Keep in mind things that you learned in steps 1 and 3. Watch what happens. Make mistakes. Do it wrong.

5: Apply lessons learned in everyday life.

That is abstract. Tangibly, I did 1, 3, then 2. Step 2 was local games of Manhunt, and university Debate.
Step 4 was me acting much like my drunk self. Mixing in the behavior I saw in more confident people. I did this at manhunt and I did this on trips to debate tournaments. When it got too stressful, I listened to "Come on Sea Legs" by Immaculate Machine. Over and Over again.
Gradually ramped it up, made myself say yes to every opportunity. Went out on a limb more and more.

It probably helped that debate forced me to stand in front of people and…

He really advocates project/value based fees instead of time based fees.

This guy is not a software consultant. So beware, beware, beware this advice, because that little detail matters a lot.

It's easy to charge project based fees when you (a) are an expert negotiator and speaker and (b) your project is not built of either hardware or software. If the deliverable is a paper report, a Powerpoint presentation, or a new org chart, it is relatively easy to work around or gloss over any problems that arise and still deliver on time and make the client happy. You have a ton of flexibility. Unless you're drafting legal documents, editing the English or changing the color of a graphic has no wide-ranging ramifications.

If the deliverable is a working machine, you're up against the laws of nature:

For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled. -- Richard Feynman

You'll end up running three weeks late because the client makes a "trivial" reinterpretation of the spec at the last minute, and the old library won't meet the new spec, but the new version of the library will, so you upgrade, but the new version has a different API, and one of those new API calls has a bug...

[UPDATE: This link, recommended elsewhere on the page, has a succinct summary of the argument in favor of time-based fees: http://30sleeps.com/blog/2007/09/27/set-your-hourly-rate/ ]

I think this is linked to the wrong blog post.
http://30sleeps.com/blog/2007/09/27/set-your-hourly-rate/
goes better with the title.

As someone who was just asked to bid on a fixed price contract, I agree with his comments. It is really unnerving to estimate exactly how much time it will take, especially if it is something you have never done before.

Tripling your estimate is a great strategy, but you also don't want to price yourself out of the contract (at least I don't). Work hasn't exactly been pouring in lately.