I can probably make something like $100/hr doing freelance work as a programmer. Yet I’ll spend an hour cooking dinner for myself.
Does this make any sense? Imagine if I spent that hour programming instead. I’d have $100. I can spend, say, $20 on dinner, end up with something that is probably much better than what I would cook, and have $80 left over. Isn’t that a better use of my time than cooking?
Similarly, sometimes I’ll spend an hour cleaning my apartment. I could instead spend that hour making $100, and paying someone maybe $30 to clean my apartment. I’ll end up with a cleaner apartment, and an extra $70 in my pocket. So why spend the hour programming instead?
I can think of a few reasons. One is if the act of programming is very unpleasant to me. I already have a full time job as a programmer, and have a side project I’m working on. Maybe, at the margin, spending that extra hour programming is just very unpleasant because I am sick of it. In the dinner example, it’d have to be more unpleasant than having $80 plus a better dinner is pleasant. For me, this very much is not the case.
Another possible reason is that there aren’t options available to me to spend a single extra hour programming for $100. For freelance projects, usually they want at least 20 hours/week for multiple months. And there is a pretty large upfront cost to seeking out and finding a project. I wish it weren’t like this. I wish it were similar to the flexibility that Uber drivers and other gig economy workers have, where they can easily just spend one extra hour working whenever they want.
Currently I lecture at a coding bootcamp for three hours a week and for $80/hr. This is sort of similar to the flexibility I envision, where it’s easy to go from zero hours to three hours a week whenever I want. But I don’t have the option of going past three hours, so it isn’t that flexible. I could perhaps find similar positions. Maybe I should.
I also wonder whether it would make sense to do longer term things periodically. Like maybe for three months a year, do a freelance project working 20 hours/week. Make 20 * 4 * 3 * 100 = $24,000 and then use that $24k throughout the year for things like dinner and cleaning.
I suspect that it’s even more difficult for people in other fields. Like if you are a doctor, you can’t really come into the office on a whim and spend an hour seeing patients.
At best this seems very unfortunate. At worst, very inefficient. I’m not sure how it would be done, but I feel like our society would benefit from more flexible work, and more specialization and trade.
I’m not sure about you, but I am pretty much already maxed out on the amount of programming I can usefully do per day. It is already rather less than my nominal working hours.
I do agree that a lot more flexibility in working arrangements would be a good thing, but it seems difficult to arrange such a society in (let’s say) the presence of misaligned agents and other detriments to beneficial coordination.
I’m not sure about you, but I am pretty much already maxed out on the amount of programming I can usefully do per day. It is already rather less than my nominal working hours.
Nah, for me I don’t feel anywhere close to maxed out. I feel like I could do 12-14 hours a day, although I have a ton of mental energy. I wouldn’t expect most people to be like that.
I do agree that a lot more flexibility in working arrangements would be a good thing, but it seems difficult to arrange such a society in (let’s say) the presence of misaligned agents and other detriments to beneficial coordination.
Yeah, I think I agree here. Well, that’s what my initial intuition says. I haven’t thought hard about how it would work, so I can’t be too confident that it’s difficult.
Why not more specialization and trade?
I can probably make something like $100/hr doing freelance work as a programmer. Yet I’ll spend an hour cooking dinner for myself.
Does this make any sense? Imagine if I spent that hour programming instead. I’d have $100. I can spend, say, $20 on dinner, end up with something that is probably much better than what I would cook, and have $80 left over. Isn’t that a better use of my time than cooking?
Similarly, sometimes I’ll spend an hour cleaning my apartment. I could instead spend that hour making $100, and paying someone maybe $30 to clean my apartment. I’ll end up with a cleaner apartment, and an extra $70 in my pocket. So why spend the hour programming instead?
I can think of a few reasons. One is if the act of programming is very unpleasant to me. I already have a full time job as a programmer, and have a side project I’m working on. Maybe, at the margin, spending that extra hour programming is just very unpleasant because I am sick of it. In the dinner example, it’d have to be more unpleasant than having $80 plus a better dinner is pleasant. For me, this very much is not the case.
Another possible reason is that there aren’t options available to me to spend a single extra hour programming for $100. For freelance projects, usually they want at least 20 hours/week for multiple months. And there is a pretty large upfront cost to seeking out and finding a project. I wish it weren’t like this. I wish it were similar to the flexibility that Uber drivers and other gig economy workers have, where they can easily just spend one extra hour working whenever they want.
Currently I lecture at a coding bootcamp for three hours a week and for $80/hr. This is sort of similar to the flexibility I envision, where it’s easy to go from zero hours to three hours a week whenever I want. But I don’t have the option of going past three hours, so it isn’t that flexible. I could perhaps find similar positions. Maybe I should.
I also wonder whether it would make sense to do longer term things periodically. Like maybe for three months a year, do a freelance project working 20 hours/week. Make
20 * 4 * 3 * 100 = $24,000and then use that $24k throughout the year for things like dinner and cleaning.I suspect that it’s even more difficult for people in other fields. Like if you are a doctor, you can’t really come into the office on a whim and spend an hour seeing patients.
At best this seems very unfortunate. At worst, very inefficient. I’m not sure how it would be done, but I feel like our society would benefit from more flexible work, and more specialization and trade.
I’m not sure about you, but I am pretty much already maxed out on the amount of programming I can usefully do per day. It is already rather less than my nominal working hours.
I do agree that a lot more flexibility in working arrangements would be a good thing, but it seems difficult to arrange such a society in (let’s say) the presence of misaligned agents and other detriments to beneficial coordination.
Nah, for me I don’t feel anywhere close to maxed out. I feel like I could do 12-14 hours a day, although I have a ton of mental energy. I wouldn’t expect most people to be like that.
Yeah, I think I agree here. Well, that’s what my initial intuition says. I haven’t thought hard about how it would work, so I can’t be too confident that it’s difficult.