The solution to amortized cost. When the cost of doing many things together is cheaper than the cost of doing each individually, how do you describe that? The trick is to not think about the individualized cost, but the net cost. Compute the full system net cost of the collectively cheaper method, then compare that to the more individualized method cost, and multiply to compare that with the cheaper system cost.
So then, the solution is simple if you want to do a blunt comparison of the system cost with the individual cost. You simply divide evenly across all the actors in the system, since that is the conversion you use for comparing with the more expensive individual cost. Due to the mathematical identities, this will give you the same totals when you scale. That is, assuming that you do not use a more efficient larger system means of working, of course.
But yeah, really. The point is to think bigger to bring about more optimizations. Your choices for optimizing a small system are necessarily less than the case of optimizing a big system.
And this idea scales with code and software development too… when you have larger code bases, the opportunities for optimization increase. Or, alternatively, the lack thereof optimization in a larger code base can contribute to growing code bloat.
Sometimes it’s not the operational methodology, but the accounting method that is creating extra costs. For example, if one person’s costs are much higher than another person’s, but you are dividing evenly. In this case, simply using a more accurate calculation can reduce your costs.
Another to thing consider, tool investment cost, how do you handle this? A simple way is to factor it into living expenses (or similar) when determining the cost of a job.
So the point is, when setting billing points, you’ve got to think about the future. Or, think about past loans that are still in payment and have certain payment goals. Well, it’s really the same thing from a practical standpoint.
Yeah, the point is, though, when you throw tools into the equation, everything gets much more complicated. But it is the tools that drives our modern accomplishments and labor-saving devices that increase our productivity overall.