5 ms·

I get the feeling HN has more posts on becoming rich lately and frankly I find it not very relevant for Hackers News. Yes, it's great if your hack/project/appli

by BjornW 16y ago

I get the feeling HN has more posts on becoming rich lately and frankly I find it not very relevant for Hackers News. Yes, it's great if your hack/project/application allows you to gain a nice income, but personally I'm more interested in your hack/project/application and the process around it than the possible outcome of being financially independent. If that's your definition of 'rich'.

jacquesm 16y ago
HN is somewhat topical in that a topic will get some attention for a while and then fades away again. I've seen this happen with a variety of subjects and it really doesn't mean much. It'll happen with more hacking related subjects as well, and I think the fascination with the 'being rich' thing is that HN started out as more startup oriented and many people pursue the startup route out of a motivation for financial independence.
alttab 16y ago
I'm picturing a lot of guys who sold everything they have to move to SF to become a start up founder / rock star. This is not unlike moving to LA and being a waitress to tread water whilst trying to make it big in Hollywood. A portion of these guys are probably frustrated, burned out, and lost. The only way to reinvigorate in some eyes is to figure out how rich they need to get before they are happy. Never chase money because it will outrun you. Money is like girls, it only comes in bounds once you stop giving a shit. Ever wonder why you only get hit on by hot girls when you actually have a girlfriend? There are stories of teenagers making their first million and they're ideas are super-simple. I wonder if its possible some portion of the HN crowd is trying too hard to get rich by being smart.
- Retric 16y ago
  When a million people try X, a few hundred can get really lucky. Tell a million people to go to take a grand to Vegas and bet their 1,000$ on 7 on a roulette table. Then have them take their winnings and do the same thing until FU money. Some of them would become millionaires, but collectively they would all be worse off. (They started with 1 billion.) The secret is to look for things where risk > reward. Unfortunately writing generic web apps is probably not it. But, the obvious cost is simply time which people tend to undervalue, so it's not obvious if the game is rigged or not.
  - tkahn6 16y ago
    I think you need a comma in there.
    - tkahn6 16y ago
      FWIW the grandparent is nothing like it was when I wrote this.
  - chc 16y ago
    I'm confused. There are lots of things where risk > reward, and most seem like pretty poor ways to get rich (e.g. jumping off a bridge).
    - Retric 16y ago
      Sorry, that seemed more clear when I wrote it. I meant (risk -> reward) as in your paid for the risk you take. You want to be the House charging people because you risk something, not the gamblers paying someone to let them make bets. In the startup world that seems to be VC's who charge people money to invest in startups while sharing the startup's upside. Risk less than Reward seemed like a poor way to express it.
  - jaxn 16y ago
    You want a risk greater than the reward? That seems like a losing strategy to me. What you want is a reward greater than the risk. Of course, everyone wants that. The way to find it is to have some insight into how to make the market more efficient (ex: a new product that solves a pain point), or to find an under-valued asset (ex: a business that is losing money because it is mismanaged). Of course, municipal bonds also have a reward greater than the risk, but no one gets rich off municipal bonds. So you do want as much risk as you can tolerate, but you want the potential reward to be worth it. The risk greater than reward scenario is no different than playing the lottery. You may get rich by chance, but on average, you lose.
    - Retric 16y ago
      Yea, I was thinking -> not greater than. see: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1612073 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1612073
- akaalias 16y ago
  Agreed very much. That pretty much sums it up. (@alttab)
- d_r 16y ago
  It's true. There have been many "Ask HN" posts along the lines of "I just quit my job and am moving to Bay Area tomorrow to work on my idea. Where do I start?" Even though I live in the Bay Area, when I read these I always wonder why would someone move from X to an expensive area just to bootstrap their idea. Yes, there are VCs and startup-minded people here. But really, doesn't it make sense to incubate your idea first before betting the farm? Moving to Silicon Valley won't make anyone magically rich -- hard work (and passion) just might.
  - jacquesm 16y ago
    After studying planet earth for a considerable time the aliens concluded that the way to get rich there is to send lots of white shirts to the laundry.
    - maigret 16y ago
      Never underestimate the power of good clothing for your career and income progression ;)
  - tlrobinson 16y ago
    A modern day California gold rush. Funny how history repeats itself.
- jseliger 16y ago
  I'm picturing a lot of guys who sold everything they have to move to SF to become a start up founder / rock star. This is not unlike moving to LA and being a waitress to tread water whilst trying to make it big in Hollywood. I don't think this comparison is wholly valid because there is only a limited number of people who can be media A-listers at a particular time, and a large number of people who reach the apparently low threshold for at least the possibility of being a rock or movie star. From there it's mostly luck and serendipity. By contrast, the number of people with the technical skill necessary to be a great hacker appears to be far lower; the returns to that skill far higher, even if the startup fails; and there appear to be a nearly infinite number of desires that people have for products to make their lives better. There are somewhere between 400 and 600 major movies greenlit every year.
ecaradec 16y ago
Actually the first answer of the page is completely not about money, it's more about the process of business and I think that it's fine on HN (for as much as I understand what HN is )
timwiseman 16y ago
I get the feeling HN has more posts on becoming rich lately and frankly I find it not very relevant for Hackers News. There are have been a lot of complaints about posts not being relevant. But this is a community and what is relevant to the community is defined by the community, and here that is expressed in upvotes. In other words, if an article is posted here and gets a large number of upvotes, it is relevant to the community of HN whether you personally find it relevant to you or not.

by BjornW 16y ago

jacquesm 16y ago

HN is somewhat topical in that a topic will get some attention for a while and then fades away again. I've seen this happen with a variety of subjects and it really doesn't mean much. It'll happen with more hacking related subjects as well, and I think the fascination with the 'being rich' thing is that HN started out as more startup oriented and many people pursue the startup route out of a motivation for financial independence.

alttab 16y ago

I'm picturing a lot of guys who sold everything they have to move to SF to become a start up founder / rock star. This is not unlike moving to LA and being a waitress to tread water whilst trying to make it big in Hollywood. A portion of these guys are probably frustrated, burned out, and lost. The only way to reinvigorate in some eyes is to figure out how rich they need to get before they are happy. Never chase money because it will outrun you. Money is like girls, it only comes in bounds once you stop giving a shit. Ever wonder why you only get hit on by hot girls when you actually have a girlfriend? There are stories of teenagers making their first million and they're ideas are super-simple. I wonder if its possible some portion of the HN crowd is trying too hard to get rich by being smart.

Retric 16y ago
When a million people try X, a few hundred can get really lucky. Tell a million people to go to take a grand to Vegas and bet their 1,000$ on 7 on a roulette table. Then have them take their winnings and do the same thing until FU money. Some of them would become millionaires, but collectively they would all be worse off. (They started with 1 billion.) The secret is to look for things where risk > reward. Unfortunately writing generic web apps is probably not it. But, the obvious cost is simply time which people tend to undervalue, so it's not obvious if the game is rigged or not.
- tkahn6 16y ago
  I think you need a comma in there.
  - tkahn6 16y ago
    FWIW the grandparent is nothing like it was when I wrote this.
- chc 16y ago
  I'm confused. There are lots of things where risk > reward, and most seem like pretty poor ways to get rich (e.g. jumping off a bridge).
  - Retric 16y ago
    Sorry, that seemed more clear when I wrote it. I meant (risk -> reward) as in your paid for the risk you take. You want to be the House charging people because you risk something, not the gamblers paying someone to let them make bets. In the startup world that seems to be VC's who charge people money to invest in startups while sharing the startup's upside. Risk less than Reward seemed like a poor way to express it.
- jaxn 16y ago
  You want a risk greater than the reward? That seems like a losing strategy to me. What you want is a reward greater than the risk. Of course, everyone wants that. The way to find it is to have some insight into how to make the market more efficient (ex: a new product that solves a pain point), or to find an under-valued asset (ex: a business that is losing money because it is mismanaged). Of course, municipal bonds also have a reward greater than the risk, but no one gets rich off municipal bonds. So you do want as much risk as you can tolerate, but you want the potential reward to be worth it. The risk greater than reward scenario is no different than playing the lottery. You may get rich by chance, but on average, you lose.
  - Retric 16y ago
    Yea, I was thinking -> not greater than. see: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1612073 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1612073
akaalias 16y ago
Agreed very much. That pretty much sums it up. (@alttab)
d_r 16y ago
It's true. There have been many "Ask HN" posts along the lines of "I just quit my job and am moving to Bay Area tomorrow to work on my idea. Where do I start?" Even though I live in the Bay Area, when I read these I always wonder why would someone move from X to an expensive area just to bootstrap their idea. Yes, there are VCs and startup-minded people here. But really, doesn't it make sense to incubate your idea first before betting the farm? Moving to Silicon Valley won't make anyone magically rich -- hard work (and passion) just might.
- jacquesm 16y ago
  After studying planet earth for a considerable time the aliens concluded that the way to get rich there is to send lots of white shirts to the laundry.
  - maigret 16y ago
    Never underestimate the power of good clothing for your career and income progression ;)
- tlrobinson 16y ago
  A modern day California gold rush. Funny how history repeats itself.
jseliger 16y ago
I'm picturing a lot of guys who sold everything they have to move to SF to become a start up founder / rock star. This is not unlike moving to LA and being a waitress to tread water whilst trying to make it big in Hollywood. I don't think this comparison is wholly valid because there is only a limited number of people who can be media A-listers at a particular time, and a large number of people who reach the apparently low threshold for at least the possibility of being a rock or movie star. From there it's mostly luck and serendipity. By contrast, the number of people with the technical skill necessary to be a great hacker appears to be far lower; the returns to that skill far higher, even if the startup fails; and there appear to be a nearly infinite number of desires that people have for products to make their lives better. There are somewhere between 400 and 600 major movies greenlit every year.

ecaradec 16y ago

Actually the first answer of the page is completely not about money, it's more about the process of business and I think that it's fine on HN (for as much as I understand what HN is )

timwiseman 16y ago

I get the feeling HN has more posts on becoming rich lately and frankly I find it not very relevant for Hackers News. There are have been a lot of complaints about posts not being relevant. But this is a community and what is relevant to the community is defined by the community, and here that is expressed in upvotes. In other words, if an article is posted here and gets a large number of upvotes, it is relevant to the community of HN whether you personally find it relevant to you or not.