Shanti’s Dispatches

Keep coming across stuff about the Emperor’s Club.

Rich guys like to pay to get their bone waxed by hot 20-year olds?!?! Shocking! Shocking I say!

These poor girls. Getting only $3,000 per hour for their services. Someone should really put an end to this horrid travesty.

Let’s say you’re a freelancer who gets paid around 65 xxx (whatever your currency happens to be).

Okay, let’s take a look at the current exchange rate between usd/eur:

$65 USD = 41 EUR

65 EUR = $120 USD

hello

Even armchair economists will start to figure out they’d (of course) rather get paid 65 eur than usd. Yes it’s obvious… did you used to get paid in usd but now get eur?

Suddenly, places like London, Dublin, Amsterdam, Berlin, Madrid, etc. get bombarded with AdWords ads from developers who normally get paid in usd. Sadly, this is a bit like Indians pitching their services to companies in the states.

Not to worry though, it’s just market economics, nothing to be ashamed about.

You used to make $65usd, but let’s say you manage to get a 51 eur / hr gig — that’s a 25% increase (to $81 usd / hr).

Startup / Market Impact

So, what all this means, is that those who are flush in Euros are about to get flooded with cheap USD-based talent. (or, they are already)

This means it’s a lot cheaper to experiment & innovate, and I’m betting european VCs are already starting to throw around some of that eur coin.

But… but…

Of course, the real goal is to get your cha-ching machine in order so you don’t have to work hourly anymore.

i have no idea what this is, just found via random google image search

Liquido - narcotic:

heard this at the clubs a few times, no one knew the name of it. turn the SHIT UP & rock your body to it, bitches.

it’s old school, just not in the states:

I just sent this to a potential development partner who cold-emailed me about helping out with additional RoR work:

Hi XXXX,

Can you point to me an example of your Ruby on Rails work, including source code + how much time / how much $$ you charged to have it developed.

Thanks,

- Shanti

The problem is, I’m guessing here, 75% or more of dev shops would laugh at you in the face with this kind of request.

Why? Because they are ashamed to actually have other developers look at their code, warts & all.

At least once a month or so =) This would be a new record of 920,000 pageviews in a day.

Funny thing is I don’t even find out until 24 hours later because of other pressing interests (hot European chicks).

Thanks Drew (fark) and redditors. Who knew Earth at Night could be so interesting?