News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on How to ask for help from people who don't know you.

Re:How to ask for help from people who don't know you by mrtb on Thursday July 02, 2026 @12:44PM (#48764060)
I've been DM'ing randos on LinkedIn for lightweight consults and found that offering to pay up front and asking strangers to price their own time can help to show seriousness and often results in free interactions or buy-me-a-coffee pricing. e.g. "Hey I love your work on X, I've been thinking about / working on related thing Y and would love your feedback on aspect Z. How much $$ to rent your brain for 20 minutes? I'm mainly wondering what you think/know about specific questions A, B, and C." They can either reply with a price, suggest a time for a short call, or just answer directly
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:How to ask for help from people who don't know you by lstodd on Thursday July 02, 2026 @01:16PM (#48764500)
Maybe that's linkedin people. There are others like me: there is no such thing as 20 minutes. If I take on something, it's at least 10 hours effective. So we would just flat out refuse any such offer while on the other hand you can get those hours free if the question is sufficiently interesting.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:How to ask for help from people who don't know you by Hnrobert42 on Thursday July 02, 2026 @01:57PM (#48765119)
In that case, I appreciate your comment here! Not sure it was worth 10 hours, but it was good of you to share.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:How to ask for help from people who don't know you by lstodd on Thursday July 02, 2026 @04:37PM (#48767056)
:) Comments are billed separately at 0.

First question that I will have would be - why do you need the what are you asking for. Because you are relying on my expertise and I do expect myself to deliver the best possible answer. And then we go into 10h+ land.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:How to ask for help from people who don't know you by mtlynch on Thursday July 02, 2026 @04:24PM (#48766883)
This is what Jason Cohen did when he was getting WPEngine off the ground. He messaged 40 WordPress consultants on LinkedIn and offered to pay them higher than their hourly rate since it was a one-off task.[0]

Out of 40 messages, 38 replied and agreed to a phone call, and none of them actually asked for the money.

[0] https://mtlynch.io/notes/designing-the-ideal-bootstrapped-bu...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:How to ask for help from people who don't know you by pinter69 on Thursday July 02, 2026 @08:46PM (#48769293)
Interesting, thanks
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:How to ask for help from people who don't know you by Tryk on Saturday July 04, 2026 @11:18AM (#48786021)
This works 100% of the time for cigarettes, ask if you can pay for one and they give you one for free.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:How to ask for help from people who don't know you by 946789987649 on Sunday July 05, 2026 @03:55AM (#48792166)
Note: This may not work on students
[ Parent | on HN ]