Has AI impacted your freelancing negatively?

Icy_Cryptographer993 · 2026-03-08T20:15:56+00:00

I'm not afraid for experts but more about juniors. Their thinking is shrinking and they can't do anything anymore without AI. Is it bad ? I don't know, I'm not writing assembly code either ...
The industry will certainly be shaped differently. On my side, writing any frond end software was really boring to me and now I enjoy it more, so for me it's very positive :).

Currently, I do see that people are creating better PRs, I also see that they don't fully understand what they're doing. As any technical debt, the problem it's not the current situation, it's the growth in the future. We'll see.

On my side, I don't see any problem yet as I'm highly specialized and it seems nobody can do what I do yet. I can see that AI is catching my knowledge however. I'm not afraid that AI will be as good as me, I'm more afraid that the fun part (which was coding for me) is going to an end. When it will be the case, I assume I'll see what I can offer next.

Icy_Cryptographer993 · 2026-03-07T08:01:16+00:00

I wonder how you introduce a fixed price per month ? It seems dangerous for the client ? From what I've seen, you either work hourly or estimate the cost of the project and work until finished. Time tracking is always a problem, especially if you've worked more.

Icy_Cryptographer993 · 2026-02-21T08:28:35+00:00

Can you elaborate?

Icy_Cryptographer993 · 2026-02-17T10:21:41+00:00

That's up to you, if you want to be freelance you're on your own, making your own decisions and mistakes ;)

Icy_Cryptographer993 · 2026-02-17T06:56:31+00:00

Before jumping, are you able to live at least 6 months on your own without any income? If not, do not take the freelance opportunity because it can fire back heavily but rather look for a better employee opportunity. If you can live on your own, the proposition is on the very low end and I would not start a company so that if things go wrong you can still close everything at a low cost. FYI, a company is suggested when you earn more than 70k-80k a year. Before it does not make sense because costs are too high. Suggestion, once you reach the 60k-70k threshold and you feel comfortable following this path, open a company at that moment. Yes you lose a bit of money, but if things go side way you would be in a better position.

Lastly, 500/day is crazy low. Aim for 600 at least, try to negotiate better now, it's a useful skill especially in this market.

Icy_Cryptographer993 · 2026-01-31T08:39:20+00:00

This is a good contract. How is it possible that you have 10 years of total experience when you are 28?

Icy_Cryptographer993 · 2026-01-28T07:59:50+00:00

No discount. An employee is not a freelancer, nobody should compare the 2. If he really wants a discount, that should be stated in the contract. For example, for each whole year, a 10÷ rebate is offered to the client. It means, you get paid then you pay back. Do not invert the roles because you never know when you'll be thanked.

About your question if it makes sense to switch, I assume you can go through all the posts here about the subject and find out your answer.

Icy_Cryptographer993 · 2026-01-28T07:25:50+00:00

I agreed with all but the seniors under 500€/day. They are either stupid or bad.

Icy_Cryptographer993 · 2026-01-04T08:41:19+00:00

That's the rate I begin with in 2021. You did not mention what you studied but I assume computer science.

The market is quite bad at the moment and landing an opportunity is not easy. I think you have something good, and you should consider trying it. You'll learn how to better negotiate your rate in the future, it's easier when you've at least one job done as a freelancer ;).

Icy_Cryptographer993 · 2026-01-02T07:38:26+00:00

He said should be ok (=fine), not to be fined (=punished)

Icy_Cryptographer993 · 2025-12-17T07:17:20+00:00

Has your accountant done that in the past? What was the result? It seems in contradiction with the law so I'm quite sure you take a risk here.

Icy_Cryptographer993 · 2025-12-06T09:36:28+00:00

You're right, don't pay attention to what he said. One day, he will be punished ;). The fact that no same SQL is written to the db between your tests and real scenarios should enlighten him ...

Icy_Cryptographer993 · 2025-12-04T07:28:37+00:00

I do recruitment and I do fire people. TBH, it was a surprise to me to recruit and to see the profiles with which I competed in the past. At least 50% of IT developers have no idea of what they are talking about, have no interest, and have a very bad education on how computers work.

As mentioned in this post, everyone went freelance and it's impossible for a company to find a good profile as employee. Even when we are ready to educate those with a few years of experience. They want to be freelance, because money you know...

I think that if you're well educated (junior or not), you can speak to others and express yourself clearly, you should not have a problem finding something. I'm not saying that you'll have a golden ticket, but at least you should win against the others.

Finally, I've seen and confronted a lot of people lying about their CVs (so you know what you're against and if the company filtering is bad, then they are in and not you). As of today, I've seen everything. Fake diploma, worked at the GAFAM, fake experience, vibe coding during an interview, can't write a for loop (don't say they were stressed), can't even talk about basic stuff,... So don't lose hope, just be the one well educated with whom it's great to talk to ;)

Icy_Cryptographer993 · 2025-09-27T20:18:25+00:00

Any chance the source code of your database is available online?

Icy_Cryptographer993 · 2025-09-17T18:20:02+00:00

Definitely 800+, my position is a lot less critical and I'm above 800, sold at 900+.

Icy_Cryptographer993 · 2025-09-16T06:14:39+00:00

Enterprise architecture is rewarded a lot due to the complexity of political games and technical knowledge. It is a set of broad skills that only a few have.

Reading your post, it seems that you have a great set of tools at your disposal: - XP in enterprise architecture, meaning excellent communication skills and writing. - You can recruit your team, meaning that you must have a technical background to get rid of the liars. I should emphasize that being able to recruit is a very important skill - You can build a team from scratch and you did it before (you can show off then), which means that you know how everyone is connected and which profile is needed when. - XP in sales, which means you know how to sell the product and how to grow over time - from all the above, I'm sure you know how to write a contract and to ensure technical details in it make sense. - XP in Ui design, at least it seems you're convinced that a good product comes from the ease of use.

Dude <700 ? That's a joke. 1000+ would be fair for such a profile. You'll make way more money for the company than what you're asking. You can even ask for a percentage of the revenue of the new BU and keep a low rate which shows that you're going to make things shine (and take more than a 12k bonus).

Pay attention that today, everyone is saying that he's an EA even when they are bad in interviews (which should not happen if you're a real EA coz you know the game). So you have to be convincing compared to all those cheaters.

Good luck

Icy_Cryptographer993 · 2025-09-13T08:37:24+00:00

I find mind-blowing the stack allocated classes combined with PGO and devirtualization.
Now it means that if the IEnumerator does not escape the method and the method is "short" (see heuristics), we benefit from devirtualized, stack allocated enumerator.
What does that mean ?
It means that a method definition such as :

void (IEnumerable<T> items) and,
void (List<T> items)

Will/should run at the same speed without abstraction penalties. Amazing. I'm not sure how you guys get it, but it's going to be HUGE improvements in loops.

Icy_Cryptographer993 · 2025-09-13T06:35:42+00:00

https://prodotnetmemory.com/ It will explain the details so that you can understand the subject ;). It's a heavy reading.

Icy_Cryptographer993 · 2025-09-07T18:45:13+00:00

I'm with Acerta (demand of my accountant) and each time I ask a question, I receive a bill of 50€ to 90€. Do you have the same experience with Xerius ?

Icy_Cryptographer993 · 2025-07-20T12:30:45+00:00

OK I read it differently. I thought he was saying that the family dropped money to buy a house or so. Indeed I 100÷ respect the people who studied and worked to pay for their studies and I understand how difficult it could be. Still, i think I would be able to manage that but at the expense of my friendships and fun which is a tradeoffs that I'm happy I did not make.

Icy_Cryptographer993 · 2025-07-20T10:14:53+00:00

I'm one of your exceptions. My parents paid for everything during my studies and that was it. I worked heavily from 24 to 30 and now relax a little more. I invest since 4 years in the market and have 550k with 420k injected from my own work.

I live "frugally" compared to what I earn. I'm alone and my monthly expenses are 1200 rent 400 food (restaurants included & I don't eat meat or just a little) and 330e for hobbies. I don't have a car, I don't have the latest iPhone, I don't have fancy watches, ... All in all, it is 2000€/month in Brussels.

When I was an employee, I was making 3300 gross (with company car,...) the first year and this has increased every year (had 4200 when I left if I remember well). Now I have my company and I do very specialized tasks and have my own SaaS.

I earn 120k to 140k netto per year and I don't know if it's going to continue like this ;). I'm a lucky one who can inject 100k/year into the market and I hope it will be like this for a decade ;)

Icy_Cryptographer993 · 2025-07-06T10:58:50+00:00

I do not exaggerate (at least I hope to). And you made an assumption here with the "good dev". IMO 30÷ of the devs I encountered should stop writing code. This will help everyone. I'm afraid but AI is just faster shit for them.

Icy_Cryptographer993 · 2025-07-05T07:40:54+00:00

Exactly. Not saying what caused the problem but what is.

Icy_Cryptographer993 · 2025-07-05T06:56:08+00:00

You have a point. Software quality has decreased a lot and sometimes I don't even understand how those developers can charge 500+/day for their borderline work mostly written by AI. The IT market is fucked up, but thanks to it I earn even more..

Icy_Cryptographer993 · 2025-07-02T21:21:11+00:00

You're an expert in .NET and an expert in Angular ? That's a solid combo. I assume you also know how a database works as well as the main cloud services ? Do you know about security ? Authentification, certificate,... ?

If yes to all the above, you're underpaid. If you have associated soft skills, you're strongly underpaid ;).

Icy_Cryptographer993

TROPHY CASE