[icebraining]

Custom software development is not an unexplored market. There are literally thousands of companies, many of them small & local, offering those services. It's just that we do so to other businesses, since it's way too expensive to develop custom stuff for single individuals.

I've built a coin-operated electric candle stand[1] for a local theater group. I'm just an amateur at electronic circuits, and I'm sure a professional would have spent less time on it, but even at half my hourly price, I would have blown half their production budget.

You could say some builders would be willing to take a pay cut to work within your community, but frankly, doing one-off toys to upper-middle-class people is not my idea of community service. I'd rather have a well paying job writing B2B software and then work for free for people in actual need.

[1] a copy (with extra features) of something commonly found in catholic churches around here: https://www.nextnature.net/app/uploads/2010/05/led_candles.j...

[wiz21c]

Completely off-topic but you sure don't want to work for free (hint: the problem with that has nothing to do with the money)

[icebraining]

I've heard that before, but I'm not convinced. Supposedly clients treat you better if they're paying, but in my experience, the correlation doesn't hold. At least by not charging I feel freer to walk away when I'm not being respected.

[ghaff]

Yeah. I'm not convinced either. I do little things for various small non-profits/volunteer organizations and I've basically never had anyone bug me because it took me a bit longer to get to something than I anticipated. If I'm paying someone market rates to do a task, you can be sure that I'll be doing the "when will it be done?" thing if they get behind schedule.

[wiz21c]

My specific problem was : client claiming intellectual property over my work. If I work for free, my work is my work but somehow the claim was made.

Then you have bugs, months after delivering, and you can't say "no I won't fix it". So although you don't want to work anymore, you still have to.

Then you have new functionalities. You are burned out with the project but there is this little thing that your friend/customer really needs. And you don't want to do it, and since you've never been paid, you'll do it for free again and you'll get burned out some more... So no compensation.

Now you can argue that the problem here is not the money, but the lack for a proper contract, that'd be right. But the money question automatically brings the contract question. That's why I say : don't work for free, ever.