Mike Monteiro: F*ck You, Pay Me

What Hacker News said

Strong rec thaumaturgy · 2016-11 · on “Freelance Isn't Free Act Passes in NYC”

You really need to watch this (very famous) talk by Mike Monteiro, called "Fuck You, Pay Me": [this video] Especially the section where his attorney starts talking (at about 7:20).

Strong rec MrFoof · 2016-11 · on “Freelance Isn't Free Act Passes in NYC”

Please watch this: Fuck You, Pay Me: [this video] The $1250 I spent once to have a business attorney draft up a template for my services agreement is the best $1250 I ever spent in the past 7 years. That $1250 makes me money , because I never have to harass clients to get paid, because they know I have legal recourse if they don't. Since then I've maybe paid him $1000 to deal with things clients wanted to redline in my service agreement. That $2250 total (which is a legitimate business expense) is a pittance compared to what I would lose for a single unpaid invoice. Meanwhile, I always hear from freelancers that don't get paid, but claim lawyers are "too expensive". You know what's really expensi

Strong rec Improvotter · 2019-06 · on “I didn't get paid, so I open-sourced my client’s project”

I watched this video from Mike Monteiro and I always refer to it since. It's about getting paid for the work you do. [this video]

Strong rec Mandatum · 2021-04 · on “Job descriptions should show a salary or salary range”

Fuck you, pay me for those of you uninitiated, this talk by Mike Monteiro is awesome - about not getting paid in creative services: [this video]

Recommends wwkeyboard · 2015-06 · on “Ask HN: I'm owed 8k by a startup that's going under. What do I do?”

It's a little late for you, but Mike Monteiro's "Fuck you, pay me!" talk has a lot of good information. [this video]

Recommends quanticle · 2017-09 · on “Fucking Sue Me (2011)”

That really depends; some company's legal department might go overboard with the stuff they make you sign 'or no deal'. Mike Monteiro talks about this in his "Fuck you, pay me" talk [1]. He says that a lot of companies have boilerplate contracts which have outdated provisions like requiring you to hand over printouts of source code, or delivering software on floppy diskettes. The proper response is to have a lawyer yourself who can review the contract and explain to the company's legal counsel that 1) these contract provisions are unreasonable and outdated and 2) that striking these provisions will not create additional liabilities for the company. The reasons these contracts go overboard is

Recommends gravypod · 2017-09 · on “Fucking Sue Me (2011)”

This is some bad advice because there are people who will "Fucking sue [you]". If you want to learn about how a professional deals with contracts, payments, and contracting I'd say to check out "Fuck you. Pay me" [0] that gives a reasoned explanation of negotiations, what to expect, and reasonable ways to react/behave. [0] - [this video]

Recommends somedangedname · 2021-09 · on “The Magic Behind the Scenes of Docker Desktop”

You give people something cool for years at no cost and now they're pissed that they have to compensate you for your labor. The way that people value software these days is completely insane. People writing you hate mail are bad clients that you don't want and you can feel free to ignore them. Also watch this video that was doing the rounds on HN a couple of years ago: [this video] Your app looks neat - I'll go try it out.