Jonathan Stark talks with Dave Rael about climbing the chain of value, embracing humanity, and the problems inherent in hourly billing
Jonathan helps consumer brands thrive in the post-PC era. Jonathan is the author of three books on mobile and web development, most notably O’Reilly’s Building iPhone Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript which is available in seven languages. His Jonathan’s Card experiment made international headlines by combining mobile payments with social giving to create a “pay it forward” coffee movement at Starbucks locations all over the U.S.
Chapters:
- - Dave introduces the show and Jonathan Stark
- - The Post-PC Era and the draw of mobility
- - Being a developer, manager, chasing hours, and fixed bids
- - Risk in software projects for freelancers and pricing models
- - Jonathan's big shift in how to approach proposals
- - How Jonathan got started in software
- - Jonathan's music career
- - Jonathan's stories of failure - having to give back payment for a dysfunctional situation and a project going longer than expected
- - Jonathan's success story - good will and notoriety from what began as sharing coffee with blog readers and became a huge story of sharing and community
- - Jonathan's thoughts on having "made it"
- - Jonathan's mission: rid the earth of hourly billing
- - Jonathan's family
- - How Jonathan stays current with what he needs to know
- - Jonathan's book recommendation
- - The things that have Jonathan most excited
- - The things that cause Jonathan pain and suffering
- - Jonathan's top 3 tips for delivering more value
- - Keeping up with Jonathan
Resources:
- Jonathan's Resource Page for Developer On Fire Listeners
- Building iPhone Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript: Making App Store Apps Without Objective-C or Cocoa - Jonathan Stark
- Dan North on .NET Rocks! - Articulated Surgeon Who Says You Don't Need Surgery (starting at 46:10)
- Uncle Bob Martin on Developer On Fire
- Jonathan is a Regular Panelist on the Freelancers' Show
Jonathan's book recommendation:
Jonathan's top 3 tips for delivering more value:
- Try to talk the potential client out of hiring you
- Define metrics for measuring progress against the goal that matters to the client
- Increase your authority for something specific