[adamzerner]

I strongly disagree. Relative to other books, maybe it is on the expensive side. But relative to the value you get from it, I think it is incredibly low.

One way to think about it is in terms of how much you value your time. If you value your time at $25/hr and this book saves you more than 4 hours of time learning UI design, it is worth it.

Another way to think about it is in terms of ROI. As someone in the tech industry I think that having these skills is likely to pay off way more than $99. Not in a legible way -- it's not like anyone will ever say to you "I see you have these UI design skills, here's a $5,000 raise." But I believe that the skills will ultimately shine through and improve your ability to get jobs and make more money.

Also, in practice, if you're in the tech industry, there's probably a good chance that you can get your employer to pay for it.

[aleph_minus_one]

In other countries, "tech industry" does not pay that well. Also keep in mind that there exist a lot of people who do programming (even often quite complicated programming) as part of their job, but work in a very different branch of industry than tech industry - also with a much smaller salary than what is common in the tech sector in the USA.

[fauigerzigerk]

The example given was $25 per hour though, which is not some outrageous Silicon Valley salary.

I think the idea may well be that there are two groups of people in the world. Those who pay for books and those who never pay for books, especially if they can find a free download somewhere.

Students, young tech workers from low wage countries, people who just want to have a look or are horders rather than readers won't pay regardless of price.

So the only question remaining is what effect price has on those who do buy tech books. Will they buy a cheaper book instead?

I don't know the answer to that, but I can say that for me there is a psychological £49.99 threshold that makes me start thinking and looking at other options rather than making an impulse purchase.

This threshold is completely irrational. If you double my salary today, the threshold won't change. It only changes gradually over time.

[aleph_minus_one]

> I think the idea may well be that there are two groups of people in the world. Those who pay for books and those who never pay for books, especially if they can find a free download somewhere.

I claim that I belong to a third group: I do spend a lot of money on books, but have to be somewhat careful with my spending. I can also claim that the knowledge that I get from the mentioned book will in all likelihood not increase my salary, so I am interested in this book solely because I am very interested in this topic. But since I am interested in a lot of topics (and tend to avoid illegal downloading of e-books if possible), I have to concentrate the huge book spendings on those books that are insanely good.

[squarefoot]

> As someone in the tech industry I think that having these skills is likely to pay off way more than $99.

That is certainly true, however many young programmers could benefit from books like this one when they are in the early learning phase, to avoid developing bad habits that can only become harder to forget with age and (bad) experience, especially if they land the first job after creating or contributing to a dozen projects.

[shinycode]

I totally agree, quality knowledge that will last years and saves time is worth it. Amazing book