{"id":"dat-free-photo-gig-hourly","audience":"freelancers","category":"decisions","technique":"context","title":"Compare two photo gigs on real hourly pay","free":false,"task":"Two photo gigs landed on the same Saturday. Count every hour each takes (shooting, editing and travel) and subtract out-of-pocket costs. Write exactly 2 numbered lines, each as Gig: ($fee − costs) ÷ total hours = $X/hr, then one unnumbered last line: Take: [gig]. Plain text, under 60 words.","materialLabel":"Your notes on both gigs (attached to your prompt automatically)","material":"SAT NOV 22 - two offers, can only do one\n\nGig A: Emery-Shah wedding\n- Fee: $2,000\n- Shooting: 8 hours\n- Editing: about 10 hours (400+ photos)\n- Travel: 1 hour each way to the vineyard\n\nGig B: Corvid Labs headshots\n- Fee: $1,200\n- Shooting: 5 hours (40 people)\n- Editing: about 3 hours (light retouching)\n- Travel: 1 hour each way downtown\n- Parking: $40 (they don't reimburse)\n\nNotes:\n- Wedding could lead to referrals. Can't count on it.\n- Corvid said \"maybe quarterly\" headshots. Not promised.\n- Both pay within 30 days.\n- Both clients want photos delivered within two weeks.\n- I edit in the evenings, so editing time competes with other client work.\n- Travel time is driving; no rideshare.\n- Wedding includes a second shooter? No, just me.\n- I track hours for every gig to keep my rates honest.","rules":[{"type":"numberedItems","count":2},{"type":"plainText"},{"type":"maxWords","max":60}],"mistakes":[{"title":"Counting only shooting hours","why":"The AI divides by shoot time, so the wedding looks like $250/hr.","fix":"Add: \"Count shooting, editing and travel hours.\"","checks":["r0","r2"]},{"title":"Forgetting costs","why":"The AI ignores the $40 parking.","fix":"Add: \"Subtract out-of-pocket costs from the fee.\"","checks":["r1"]},{"title":"Not asking to see the work","why":"You can't sanity-check a bare hourly rate.","fix":"Add a line to copy: \"1. Gig A: $2,000 ÷ (8 + 10 + 2) = $100/hr\"","checks":["numberedItems","r0"]},{"title":"Trusting the AI to count words","why":"AI is bad at counting. Ask for a total word limit and it often lands over it.","fix":"Cap each line: \"each line under 16 words.\"","checks":["maxWords"]},{"title":"Forgetting where it goes","why":"AI loves markdown tables and bold, which show up as clutter in your gig tracker.","fix":"Add: \"Plain text, no bold, headings or tables.\"","checks":["plainText"]}],"promptHints":[{"label":"Counts all hours","patterns":["editing","travel","all (the )?hours"]},{"label":"Subtracts costs","patterns":["parking","costs?","subtract"]},{"label":"Asks to show the math","patterns":["show (the |your )?(math|work)","x \\$|\\bx\\b.{0,10}=","calculation","step"]},{"label":"Sets a word limit","patterns":["\\d+\\s*words","word (limit|count)","under \\d+"]},{"label":"Asks for plain text","patterns":["plain","no bold","no markdown","no formatting","no (headings|tables)"]}],"hint":"Shooting is only part of the work. Tell the AI which hours and costs count, and ask for each rate's math.","rubricLabels":["Gig A is $2,000 ÷ (8 + 10 + 2 = 20 hours) = $100/hr","Gig B is ($1,200 − $40 parking) ÷ (5 + 3 + 2 = 10 hours) = $116/hr","The last line picks Gig B, after the two lines, with no maybes (referrals, quarterly work) counted and nothing before the first numbered line"]}