The incompetence paradox

[Wroughton]

Perspective. I'm arguing this same line of thought with a friend via text at the moment. I'm charging $4300 for a project, then adding install/travel and he's charging $2700 to $3000 for the completed project. 100 miles round trip for both.  He's faster and a better smith than I am. He looks at his time and want's to measure his SKILL level against everyone elses normal shop time and those two things are not comparable. I don't believe there's another smith anywhere near us that is doing as much of his own work. We both have the same type of jobs at the moment, which started the conversation. I told him if he keeps it up he's going to be building my projects too and I'll pocket some loot and go do another project. 

I will say his overhead is much less, he's a little more specialized and takes on smaller projects as a whole. 

That being said I believe you/all of us, owe it to ourselves to find out the competitions pricing. And this goes to perceived value. If a client has paid 20k for something in the past and you say you will do it for 8k they might get a little leary also. If someone wants me to build something they can get off the shelf I find out what that item costs and work from there. Sometimes it's a lot more. Sometimes it's a lot less.  I also get requests for bids all the time from fab shops trying to figure out how to price this that and the other. Jobs I'll never see. I used to just blow the quote out of the water because i knew what they were up to but now I usually give a competent price and add 10%. If they want to play with that number up or down that's on them but at least they are getting a good idea of where they should land and they won't be undercutting me or someone else. 

 

[rockstar.esq]

9 hours ago, John McPherson said:

 speed, and do other unsafe acts on the highways? The chances of getting caught are extremely low, as are the potential fines. In some other countries, enforcement is rigid, fines are based on your gross income, and are progressive. Outcome: good behavior.

John,  You've mentioned driving habits / police enforcement a couple of times in the past and I see your point.  

I think there's a  bigger problem with legitimacy on the part of enforcement. 

Throughout the US, speed limits are kept below the normal flow of traffic to generate ticket revenue.  There is a city in the Netherlands that took down all of their traffic signs and found that traffic safety improved.  I think this humble exercise suggests that we should have a bit more respect for human nature.

My daily commute involves coming to a dead halt on a 75 mph Interstate.  Every single day we all come to a halt, then lurch forward in 5 mph bursts for a mile or two.  Only rarely is there ever an actual problem in the form of an accident, obstruction, or whatever.  The lanes haven't narrowed, there's obvious reason for it to happen, but it does, especially on Fridays.

This part of Interstate has a frontage road that's maybe 30' away and there's a few "paths" cut by drivers who've crossed from the right lane of the Interstate to the right lane of the two lane frontage road.

The frontage road is interrupted such that the area that people are entering is actually a dead end servicing one abandoned property.

I've driven this road for a decade and I've never witnessed a vehicle on the frontage road approaching that property which means there's never any on-coming traffic for those escaping motorists to contend with.  The topography is dead-flat with no trees, bushes, boulders, or obstructions to line of sight.

Every Friday as I'm driving home, I see a State Police cruiser or two on that frontage road writing tickets for people who've crossed the embankment to escape the traffic jam. These exact same resources could be applied to close the on-coming lane of the frontage road to allow congestion relief by bypassing the traffic jam.  There's no ticket revenue in that solution, so it's never considered. 

I've never seen the police doing anything to improve the traffic flow through that area. As I think about it, I hear about all the drunks, speeders, and aggressive drivers getting pulled over, but I've never heard anything about pulling over drivers for obstructing traffic.

I wish I was kidding when I tell you that there was a guy who commuted the same time as me for a year in a 20 Ton CRANE!

It took him the better part of 10 miles to get up to 40mph in a 75mph zone.  Mind you, this is in a two lane stretch. 

Still, he was speedy compared to the summer migration of senior citizens driving clapped-out F150's with 2 Ton 5th wheel trailers at the speed of smell. Where else could they combine their twin passions for slow driving and aluminum siding?

 

 

 

 

 

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

Speed of smell.......I love it!