Annals of the Freelance

The message arrived in my WhatsApp inbox at nine minutes past midnight. I was driving, and would not reply to it until 33 minutes later. A founder for whom I had made a widget (type: financial) was writing to ask about modifying the qualifies of the widget, due to downstream feedback on the widget's use. 

I did not remember the full details of this widget's development, so I volunteered to first review our earlier engagement documents free of charge. One is not typically paid to remember work once work is delivered, yet one tries to be helpful when it is possible.

In my review, I included screen-caps and links to snippets of conversations from a month ago. The qualities of the widget which needed change were already flagged as problematic during development ... and conversations held during development clearly stated that there was a long, and expensive way to fix the widget, and alternatively a quick and dirty yet conventionally acceptable way to do so. To-date, neither fix had been adopted by the founder.

The founder expressed loneliness in not being able to spare any staff or other resources to address the issue. I had to return to my ongoing work for the day, and was unable to offer further assistance. I felt sad, but that is but a reflection of the harshness of the business environment - those who do not prepare, are often caught off-guard.

This episode, including this documentation, would distract me from work until 0133 hours. That was a cost I assumed, and this is my record of that expense.