The $8.40 Minute

The math lawyers do for clients, but forget to do for themselves.

Someone in my community recently said that Wispr Flow — the popular AI dictation tool — is overpriced at $15 a month. For his use, he did not think it was worth it.

Then another lawyer in the group replied and reframed the question completely.
He started with a story from his college days. He was studying Industrial Management and spent a summer at the world’s largest steel plant. He worked for an industrial engineer named John Roberts (father of the current Chief Justice). His job was to do time and motion studies, breaking down every step of a procedure into seconds and minutes.

The goal was to cut steps and save time, which meant saving money.

He said that productivity is all about math, and here’s the math he applied to Wispr Flow:

If you charge $500 an hour, you are charging about $0.14 per second. That’s $8.40 a minute. If you save a minute by dictating something instead of typing it, you just saved something close to $8.40.

So a productivity tool that costs $15 a month pays for itself if it saves you roughly two minutes across a 30-day stretch. That’s the easy math.
But the harder part was non-measurable but important. He said:

I’ve always struggled with anxiety, and I’m a terrible typist. Whenever in the past I had to type something, my anxiety got in the way and I procrastinated. I no longer procrastinate as much with Wispr Flow. I can’t tell you how this has made a difference in my life. The cost of these products is laughingly small to me.

So let’s break it down.

First, the time-keeping math. Lawyers bill by the hour. We already think in time units. And yet when a tool costs $15 or $30 or $50 a month, we look at the sticker price instead of the time it gives back. That is the wrong perspective.

Second, the costs that you can’t put on a spreadsheet (e.g. anxiety, procrastination). Excess friction can determine whether the work gets done at all. A tool that removes that friction earns its keep, even if no clock is measuring it.

I am not saying every $15 tool is worth $15. Some are not. But the default question — “is this too expensive?” — is usually the wrong question. The better one is: what is a minute of my time actually worth, and what is this saving me?

;-)

Ernie

P.S. In the Inner Circle, we work through what this shift means in practice — how to price, position, and deliver when your clients carry a reference point in their pocket.

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https://ernietheattorney.net/