Fortuitous Oddity

Craig Newmark comments on the silly NYT piece about the poor, poor single-digit Silicon Valley Millionaires.

A pair of hilarious letters mocking the big brokerage meltdown from Long or Short Capital.

Bryan Caplan comments on the absurdity of the “reality based community”. 

Web Worker Daily talks about setting your hourly rate.  He highlights several things I’ve learned. 

Those new to web work often want to set the lowest possible rate, so as to attract business. I personally counsel against this, for three reasons. First, if your rate is too low, people will be suspicious that you’re not really professional (would you trust a doctor who offered to perform brain surgery for $12.95?). Second, the clients you get at low, low rates tend to be the biggest nuisances, who demand rework of everything and take forever to pay their bills. Third, it’s a lot easier to offer a discount than it is to raise a price you already quoted. To my mind, it’s far better to quote a fair rate than an artificially low on in the first place.

This is mirrored in my own experience.  It’s about profit maximization, not revenue maximization. 

The FreelanceSwitch Hourly Rate Calculator is very useful for helping with this.

The Democrats Dither on Trade.  All their talk about the international community respecting us is apparently forgotten once the unions get involved.

Vox posts on whether ‘more police’ make us safe. Bruce Schneier says no.

Instapundit slams whiny Ivy Leaguers.  Perhaps one should consider how they’re going to make money before going to a school that charges ~40 grand a year.

Two articles that happen to be from the Orange County Register on free speech - one on political correctness, and one on anti-speech Islamofacist bullying.

I had no idea John Derbyshire was anything other than a crusty National Review writer. Apparently he’s also writes great books on advanced mathematics.  Here’s his homepage.

Is It Better to Buy or Rent?, a very handy home-buying calculator thinger.