[shubhamjain]

As an amateur programmer and a part-time freelancer, I didn't have a slightest clue about the value of my work. It was only 5-6 years back when I gladly did small gigs on Want-to-Hire forums for tens of dollars.

One particular gig was about scrapping data from a car sales website which I completed for $30 (should have cost at least 10x). The client discussed about the possibility of converting the phone numbers, which were obfuscated as plain images, to plain text. Without ado, I fired up my editor to explore the problem. It proved to atrociously difficult as I didn't have any background in anything similar but with the help from my brother, I was able to make a scrappy algorithm that worked.

I reported back my progress and asked for additional $25 for it but the client refused, saying that he hadn't given his final say. I was dejected but felt foolish more than anything else. Looking back, I can't help think how anyone would pain in giving something as meagre as $25 (at least, for someone in United States) for a someone's hard work.

If there is one thing I can glean from my story and author's is that businesses, at least most of them, are ruthless. It doesn't matter who runs them, it's just an unspoken rule that you don't give what you don't owe. You don't shower sympathy or, do things that aren't in business' best interest (long term / short term). The only thing you can—and should—do is be ruthless yourself. Negotiate for more confidently. Move on if you're undervalued. Never think of owing anything to any entity.

[simonhamp]

Whilst I've probably been in a similar situation at some point or another in my past (albeit in the UK), and can very much sympathise with your story, I can't possibly agree with your final premise.

Ruthlessness is not what makes for a happy work life.

You absolutely should call out the thankless and unappreciative! Perhaps they really are just poorly informed about how long things take or the knowledge that makes it possible (however unlikely)... that's still no excuse.

And to "treat others as they treat you" is a slippery slope that can quickly get you a bad reputation.

Don't be afraid to do things differently, you will be happier for it.

[zaphar]

Doing things differently has consistently given me more and better opportunities than ruthlessness. In a way it makes me stand out from the crowd. I tend to be asked to lead teams with poor morale or interpersonal tensions. Usually I'm able to negotiate the power to be able to make the changes necessary for that team to perform better and have a better work experience. The company wins because the engineers perform better. The employees win because they have a better work experience.

In the cases where I am unable to negotiate such things I don't stick around. Any company that doesn't see the employee/employer relationship as a two way street is no company I want to work for.

[w0rd-driven]

I think understanding the value you're giving is key but it's somewhat of a black art. Freelance bidding sites that have something like 'build complete Facebook clone for $29.99' are a huge red flag to me. The client obviously has no clue what goes into something like that, even if you paid someone $0.99 an hour it would blow past their 'budget' almost immediately. On the backend when what you delivered was functional if it was Facebook scale with ad networks would likely rake in far far more than their budget. As a developer I can't expect to charge the expected revenue stream but there is an art to finding the happy medium.

I find myself in this even in a salaried position. If I'm constantly solving problems that brings the company I work for millions in revenue, my paltry salary that is lower than market rate starts to seem like a liability. I know there's a risk I'm not taking but in an ideal world I would be adequately compensated for any increase I'm directly involved with. I know we don't live in that ideal world but it would be nice to be somewhere close to it.

[bigmanwalter]

Communal workplaces are sprouting up around the US and I'm in the process of searching for one myself. Generally they act as consulting/freelancing/contracting firms. Ownership is shared by all workers in accordance to their level of participation in the firm. Profits above the time and materials required to build a project are shared by investing into communal assets or by distributing them as dividends to all members.

[wtbob]

Yeah, I'll agree as an American that $55 for code which can do primitive OCR is probably really, really cheap. Your client should have treated you better.

> The only thing you can—and should—do is be ruthless yourself. Negotiate for more confidently. Move on if you're undervalued.

Well, try not to think of it as being ruthless. Plenty of businesses do well by helping others do well, too. But, at the end of the day, you have bills to pay and a lifestyle to support: you have to preserve that.

[devoply]

At a normal 9-5 job this sort of thing would take at least a couple of weeks to complete and is therefore worth around $3000.