Oh nonsense. I charge a premium over some of my (business) friends because I work full stack plus project management. But those friends are just as competent, at the coding.
I don't know about your or your friends' coding skills, so I can't comment. I see a huge difference in the code I write in my language of proficiency versus code my friends write in the same language (my friends are mainly scientists, so their code tends to be ad-hoc modelling to get to a specific point, then discarded).
My code is much better architected, much more reusable, cleaner, and, if you're going to be using it in the long-term, it's going to be much, much cheaper. Not to sound arrogant, but I sometimes marvel at how easy it is to add more features or change features just because the code was written properly the first time around.
This is what the client pays for, the years of experience that have taught me how to write clean, maintainable and extensible code. If you're going to throw the code away after your MVP, you obviously shouldn't care if the code is maintainable, but code written by inexperienced and experienced developers is nowhere near similar.
Yes, but that's not the skillset that the OP was advocating paying for.
Your code I am sure is excellent; but we're talking about the other factors, such a project management, specification and UI design. etc etc.
Also, in some cases there is no point building a full architecture and reusable constructs: if all you're doing is writing a Wordpress theme or plugin what's the need?
You wouldn't hire me to write a Wordpress theme, you'd hire someone without the premium. And it would he just as good!
> My code is much better architected, much more reusable, cleaner, and, if you're going to be using it in the long-term, it's going to be much, much cheaper.
> I don't know about your or your friends' coding skills, so I can't comment. I see a huge difference in the code my friends write in their language of proficiency versus code I write in the same language (I am mainly a scientist, so my code tends to be ad-hoc modelling to get to a specific point, then discarded).
> Their code is much better architected, much more reusable, cleaner, and, if you're going to be using it in the long-term, it's going to be much, much cheaper. Not to sound arrogant, but they sometimes marvel at how easy it is to add more features or change features just because the code was written properly the first time around.
> This is what the client pays for, the years of experience that have taught them how to write clean, maintainable and extensible code. If you're going to throw the code away after your MVP, you obviously shouldn't care if the code is maintainable, but code written by inexperienced and experienced developers is nowhere near similar.
I agree with you that a trained developer does produce higher quality code and even if more expensive does end up being better in the long run. However in terms of judging the quality of your own work it's important to keep in mind that everyone thinks they're above average. A random search found this related article. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57568186/everyone-thinks...
Why should he be humble? There can be a huge difference in the quality of the work produced by different people. Knowing your real value is nothing to be ashamed of.
