Hasn't that always been the case? When I lived in the Bay Area and networked, and was exposed to so much of how people did things, I was able to land much more contracts because I could come up with simple existing solutions. Once I moved away and wasn't exposed to cool people doing cool problem solving things, I had to switch into more bog standard consulting.

It blew people's minds when we couple implement huge projects that they could never get of the ground for years in just a matter of months because of 'this one cool trick'.

Man I miss Santa Cruz ಥ﹏ಥ worst mistake of my life to leave there.