HN user
I have been. That's been the most important factor in considering the offers I've gotten here and elsewhere. Where I'm from, standard rent for a 2500sq ft house in a great area is like $1500/mo... Split 3 ways, it's $500/mo rent. I'll never live that cheaply again.
Judging worth is not always easy unfortunately. It varies by need, in relation to other benefits, region, and more. I wish there was a simple test to take that would spit out a salary worth... Alas...
Awesome at what? Solving problems? Check. Dedicating myself to things? Check. Working hard to get things done properly and quickly? Check. Having fun doing these things? Double check.
I'm not the best programmer in the world (jr level I'd say), but I sure as hell love what I do and I'm improving every day.
Currently my biggest tools are Ruby, Rails, Javascript (jQuery mostly), and HTML/CSS. Half front-end/half back-end dev in my day job.
email me: aanon2247@gmail.com if you're interested in talking.
note: obviously throwaway accounts