The future of work - a freelancer's perspective

This is my beach "office". I work out of this "office" a few days a month. On other days I work from home or Starbucks.

I am a freelancer ( a.k.a consultant ) in the field of Computer Vision and Artificial Intelligence. I started consulting last year after stepping down as the CTO (R&D) and co-founder of a venture-backed startup. After 8 long years at my previous company, I wanted to do something different. At that time, I did not think of consulting as a career option. It was something I was planning to do for a couple of months because I wanted to decide my next career move at my leisure without the financial pressure of being unemployed.

A year into consulting, my opinion about freelancing has changed completely. In many ways, my consulting company provides a glimpse into the future of work. In this post, I will share some of those insights and would love to hear your opinions in the comments section below.

No offices, no commute, few meetings

I operate my business out of my house. My collaborators work from their homes or coffee shops as well. My "commute" involves going for a walk and even if I tried my best, I cannot get stuck in traffic.

I also have very few meetings because when you are paid by the hour, people are careful not to waste your time because it costs them a lot of money. In contrast, many managers tend to consume an employee's time in the spirit of consuming a large buffet. After paying a fixed monthly salary, they proceed to waste large amounts of an employee's time because knowledge workers are not paid overtime.

It is surprising so many companies insist on having an office even when all their employees can work from home and get the job done much more efficiently. Imagine how many millions of hours of productive time are wasted in unnecessary commute just so people can go to their offices to attend meetings that should not have been scheduled in the first place.

No employees

I work with 4 other AI experts to deliver our projects but my business has 0 employees. My collaborators have a subcontracting arrangement with my company. In a not so distant future, about 40% of the workforce will consist of freelancers. People want to work for themselves; they want to be their own boss. At the same time, companies do not want to hire full-time employees who they have to pay whether or not there is work. An article in TechCruch last year reported the following facts a) "Microsoft has nearly two-thirds as many contractors as full-time employees." b) "[Uber] has 160,000 contractors, but just 2,000 employees. That’s an astonishing ratio of 80 to 1. "

No bosses

I work with several companies, but I don't have a boss. Sure, we have to deliver work according to our contract, but I can go watch a movie every day at 11 am if I so wish. Similarly, I am not a boss either. The people who work with me are free to work whenever they wish from wherever they want. They can choose to spend as many hours as they want on social media or go sit on a tree in the middle of a "work day". I don't get to dictate how they perform their job. At the end of the day they just have to deliver the work they had promised and that is all that matters.

No geographical constraints

To run my business my co-workers and I need a good internet connection and that is all we need.

My clients and collaborators live in different parts of the world. I can and do collaborate with people in different countries. My current clients are in Texas, Boston, New York, New Hampshire and Canada. Surprisingly, I have only one client in San Diego, California, the city where I live.

In many jobs today, geography does not matter and when freelancing becomes more common people will have the opportunity to afford a better lifestyle at the same income level. For example, freelancers whose jobs are without geographical constraints can move to places with low cost of living and/or zero state taxes. This extra 10-15% saving can quite substantially improve the quality of their lives. They can also travel while working part time.

No servers

As a company the relies heavily on heavy computational power, it is surprising that we do not own the powerful servers that make our business possible. We rent them. To deliver my first project in Deep Learning we used Amazon Web Services. After our algorithms were tested, we simply created an image of the machine and delivered it to the client digitally. Just a few years back this project would have required me and my client to invest heavily in infrastructure making the project financially much less profitable.

No marketing, no advertising

"Marketing in the future is like sex. Only the losers will have to pay for it."

I have spent zero dollars on traditional marketing and advertising. So, how do I get work that keeps 5 people busy? People find me through my blog ( LearnOpenCV.com ) where I teach computer vision and machine learning techniques. The content is free, but the blog serves as a great marketing channel for me. I also get work because of referrals from existing clients and friends I have met through the blog.

Small businesses and individuals who have no marketing / advertising dollars to spend are not necessarily at a disadvantage today. They will do fine by bypassing traditional marketing and investing time and energy in channels like blogs, youtube, podcasts etc.

No facetime

I have not met half of my clients and half of my co-workers in person! The few times I have had to travel to meet my clients were good-to-have trips but not necessary trips. We will increasingly trust people we have never met in person. That is both wonderful and a bit scary at the same time.

No monthly salary

"The three most harmful addictions are heroin, carbohydrates, and a monthly salary.” -- Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

As a freelancer, you do not make a fixed monthly salary. Is that a good thing ? Absolutely. A variable income provides monthly feedback about what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong. For example, a freelancer will quickly learn that he/she is underestimating the amount of work required to complete projects after miscalculating the time in just a couple of projects because of the financial pain it will cause. Do you think managers of software projects would set ridiculous deadlines that have no chance of succeeding if their salaries depended on the deadline being met ?

A fixed salary, also demands a baseline level of effort. There is little room to trade time for money on a regular basis. A variable salary allows for more freedom and flexibility. Want to work part time while you are on a 6-month long vacation ? Sure, why not.

Conclusion

The way we do our work is undergoing a massive change. Freelancing could soon be the new normal and with that, you, as a freelancer, will have the opportunity to design a lifestyle where you have more control over when, where and how much you work. However, freelancing is also ruthlessly capitalistic. You can get paid a lot for exceptional work or not at all for work that does not meet the standards set in your contract. So, the only way you get a chance to design your lifestyle is by being exceptional at your job first. This one aspect of work is never going to change.

"Be so good, they can't ignore you" -- Steve Martin