Updated 03092023-122753
At least at the beginning of this venture, I'm going to proceed under a money-back guarantee-like policy, essentially, only without cash up front. I intend to charge only if we can quantitatively identify value added to your life. $200 per insight is what I've been thinking. Insights being skills/knowledge which you find yourself using daily going forward. I particularly appreciate how one friend - Matt, who manages his own private therapy practice in Australia - put it:
I've been thinking about your consultancy idea/charging per insight, and how that just makes inherent sense from a neurodivergent perspective. Kind of like "don't rely on me for any mission critical stuff, but if you have a problem, tell me and I'll try to solve it - if I can solve it and it's helpful for you, please pay me a couple of hundred dollars, if I can't solve it, I'll tell you I can't solve it, and you don't have to pay me anything - meanwhile, I'll take the knowledge and skills I learned along the way and apply them to trying to solve other problems I might come across."
I've found that I appear to have some unique insight in terms of what's available across the software industry spectrum (commercial/enterprise - small web/open source) that generally manifests in early adoption form. I saw incredible potential in Discord as a free Slack alternative "long" before anyone else seemed to and tend to find my iOS app recommendations, especially, to be particularly impactful in the professional realm, believe it or not. Automation across Apple platforms has become a late specialty of mine, largely due to a compulsory diligence to keep up with its few public authorities since Shortcuts' first integration in iOS 12.
I've as yet found it quite difficult to support this claim with auditable evidence, but perhaps self-deprecation might suffice: the truth is, I believe I am the single most challenging software stress test - by my nature, and even moreso by disciplined intention - out of anyone or anything I've ever encountered. Worded differently, I simply have a divine knack for breaking shit. I promise you, it is not the gift I would have chosen, were I offered options, but it is the plain truth.
While I am capable of moonlighting as a web developer/designer, I am at my best when instead advising between Content Management Systems and/or SaaS. I think my relative alienation from the general web dev industry has built a genuinely unique perspective. The Hacker News discussion in response to my most popular blog post, ever, might be a good resource for others' informed critiques of my general webdev opinions.
I have literally lived - both personally and professionally, for my whole adult life and then some - in a select set of notetaking/word processing/"thought management" tools/suites, and have come to understand and appreciate the innate preciousness of a creative professional's "setup." In recent years, I've basically made it my business to stay up-to-date on the current offerings in this area across the industry. Most recently, I have heavily advocated for and configured Drafts (Apple platforms) but I can offer a wide spectrum of knowledge on the lot, including (topically) Obsidian, Typora, etc.
I had the privilege of entering the Social Web at an earlier time, with different assumptions than I think many newer comers have. In a much less algorithmically-driven atmosphere (in terms of Discovery,) it was up to "us" (myself and my friends) to find folks to engage with ourselves, generally. This is my best shot at an explanation for my current, day-to-day social web life, which is 100% chronological, free of ads, and minus anything I don't want to see, frankly. I've achieved this largely through trial-and-error, but the result is a set of knowledge I think many would find truly valuable in terms of improving their relationship with the Social Web.
This service might optionally include introductions to Mastodon, Twitter Lists, third-party Twitter clients, or the Tildeverse.
Read: Stuff you should go to other folks for first.
(For both you and I!)