Comment Re:$40,000 a year (Score 1) 321
What's wrong with, "Hey, if you (fix this bug|add this feature), I'll pay you $x. No rush, do it in your spare time, and whenever you get it done you'll get paid"?
In principle, nothing. In practice, $x is always a figure that's off by at least one order of magnitude relative to the amount of work involved in accomplishing the desired goal.
It helps if you already know the code, the language, and the toolkit intimately. The more you know ahead of time, the easier it is to accomplish some goal for hire. In practice, the more intimately involved you are with a project, the less $x will be. I've had people offer to buy me a six-pack of beer in exchange for what amounts to 50 hours of work to someone familiar with the code and able to get off and running quickly. Another time, I got offered $50 for a similar amount of work, which is much better, but still laughable. Sure, I know the code, but it still takes time and work to implement and test something. I work on that particular code for free, but if I'm for hire, I'm going to get at least minimum wage. Otherwise, I'm simply not for hire.