5 ms·

A chinese villager who sells more software daily than you do

51 points by bjonathan 16y ago

sosuke 16y ago
No pictures, no links and no supporting information at all in the article. How do we know this isn't an excellent fiction piece? All that aside, using those services to farm for project ideas is pretty cool.
- Concours 16y ago
  Maxklein is so Meta, I'm not sure if the story is true, but there's almost always something to learn from those posts, like: If you are looking for ideas to build something, hack all the creative process/brainsstorming etc... and do port your brainstorming to freelancer boards for ideas, it's ok to do what you enjoy doing, no matter how rich you are or the financial reward. I agree to both.
nhebb 16y ago
Every month, he makes more than $5000 At the moment he’s making more than $5000 a day Which is it?
- bmelton 16y ago
  I'm not sure exactly what you're taking issue with, but both statements can be equally true at the same time, and I can't read either of them in a way in which one contradicts the other.
  - jonpaul 16y ago
    While you are correct, Max Klein has come under fire for credibility issues on HN as of recent. I think that's the commenter's underlying question. Is this just another one of Max's "stories." However, it does seem pretty legit, as it's not that far fetched. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1611165 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1611165 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1039104 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1039104 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1600782 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1600782 http://apps.ycombinator.com/item?id=1353307 http://apps.ycombinator.com/item?id=1353307 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1353181 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1353181
  - nhebb 16y ago
    I half expected a response like this, but I decided to let it run as is.
  - mquander 16y ago
    Give me a break. Is he making closer to $150k a month, or $5k a month? Both statements cannot be "equally true" coming from a human pen.
    - tshtf 16y ago
      Technically speaking, both can equally be true. Every month, he makes more than $5000 At the moment he’s making more than $5000 a day If one makes more than $5000 a day, clearly that person will make more than $5000 a month.
      - mquander 16y ago
        We aren't speaking technically. It's a story.
    - bmelton 16y ago
      They very well can be equally true. $5,000 a day is 'more than' $5k a month, no matter how you read it. While I agree that it's a potentially confusing statement, I just don't see anything factually incorrect about it. For what it's worth, my interpretation is that 'on average' or perhaps 'since he started', he's made generally over $5,000 in a month, but lately he's doing far better than that. Perhaps I'm the one reading too much into it here, but I strongly disagree that it is in any way misleading or semantically problematic.
      - mquander 16y ago
        No person says "more than $5,000" to imply that the value may be any amount greater than $5,000, with equal probability. Saying "more than $5,000 a month" if you actually mean "$150,000 a month" may as well be the dictionary definition of misleading, and totally defeats the purpose of giving a number at all. The obvious explanation is that one or the other statement is a typo, and it would be nice to know which, since it's a big difference. It's possible that one means "since he started", or whatever, but again, it would be nice if the author said so.
        16y ago
- robertg 16y ago
  Yeah, I thought that too... It might be a past/present kind of thing. Like, at the time the author was in China, he was making $5000/month and now that the article is published it's $5000/day. Although, $5000/day seems a bit high, so I'm thinking it's a typo.
- maxklein 16y ago
  It's 5000 a month, made a mistake, corrected now.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
wallflower 16y ago
I think this story is actually about Max Klein. The TechCrunch pickup, the villager are all story avatars. Another HN commenter found out that he writes video encoding software, along with a franchise of profitable information iPhone apps. It is a pretty powerful idea - build what people are looking for - but not as a software soldier-of-fortune but as an owner.
vijayr 16y ago
"He said he tried selling Firefox for a while, but sales were very low due to the free competition." :)
vaksel 16y ago
that just sounds like bullshit to me: He did this, and rather than making software for clients, he created his own software products, which he put on the internet. He said that 3 days after he copied a simple idea from the rentacoder list on his website, he was making 2 sales a day. $20 per day, which " you don't just release something and then magically start making 2 sales a day...you still have to market. And I doubt many people would buy from someone who wrote in broken english. isn't it odd, how somehow you ALWAYS manage to find all these interesting people...in all these odd places. Why don't you go outside and snap a few pictures of China for us. That would at least prove that you are actually in China and not just pulling everyone's chain.
- maxklein 16y ago
  Well, why don't you just click on my flickr link? It's right there on my blog - a little flickr icon. I regularly post photos.

51 points by bjonathan 16y ago

No pictures, no links and no supporting information at all in the article. How do we know this isn't an excellent fiction piece? All that aside, using those services to farm for project ideas is pretty cool.

Concours 16y ago
Maxklein is so Meta, I'm not sure if the story is true, but there's almost always something to learn from those posts, like: If you are looking for ideas to build something, hack all the creative process/brainsstorming etc... and do port your brainstorming to freelancer boards for ideas, it's ok to do what you enjoy doing, no matter how rich you are or the financial reward. I agree to both.

nhebb 16y ago

Every month, he makes more than $5000 At the moment he’s making more than $5000 a day Which is it?

bmelton 16y ago
I'm not sure exactly what you're taking issue with, but both statements can be equally true at the same time, and I can't read either of them in a way in which one contradicts the other.
- jonpaul 16y ago
  While you are correct, Max Klein has come under fire for credibility issues on HN as of recent. I think that's the commenter's underlying question. Is this just another one of Max's "stories." However, it does seem pretty legit, as it's not that far fetched. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1611165 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1611165 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1039104 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1039104 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1600782 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1600782 http://apps.ycombinator.com/item?id=1353307 http://apps.ycombinator.com/item?id=1353307 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1353181 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1353181
- nhebb 16y ago
  I half expected a response like this, but I decided to let it run as is.
- mquander 16y ago
  Give me a break. Is he making closer to $150k a month, or $5k a month? Both statements cannot be "equally true" coming from a human pen.
  - tshtf 16y ago
    Technically speaking, both can equally be true. Every month, he makes more than $5000 At the moment he’s making more than $5000 a day If one makes more than $5000 a day, clearly that person will make more than $5000 a month.
    - mquander 16y ago
      We aren't speaking technically. It's a story.
  - bmelton 16y ago
    They very well can be equally true. $5,000 a day is 'more than' $5k a month, no matter how you read it. While I agree that it's a potentially confusing statement, I just don't see anything factually incorrect about it. For what it's worth, my interpretation is that 'on average' or perhaps 'since he started', he's made generally over $5,000 in a month, but lately he's doing far better than that. Perhaps I'm the one reading too much into it here, but I strongly disagree that it is in any way misleading or semantically problematic.
    - mquander 16y ago
      No person says "more than $5,000" to imply that the value may be any amount greater than $5,000, with equal probability. Saying "more than $5,000 a month" if you actually mean "$150,000 a month" may as well be the dictionary definition of misleading, and totally defeats the purpose of giving a number at all. The obvious explanation is that one or the other statement is a typo, and it would be nice to know which, since it's a big difference. It's possible that one means "since he started", or whatever, but again, it would be nice if the author said so.
      - 16y ago
robertg 16y ago
Yeah, I thought that too... It might be a past/present kind of thing. Like, at the time the author was in China, he was making $5000/month and now that the article is published it's $5000/day. Although, $5000/day seems a bit high, so I'm thinking it's a typo.
maxklein 16y ago
It's 5000 a month, made a mistake, corrected now.

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

wallflower 16y ago

I think this story is actually about Max Klein. The TechCrunch pickup, the villager are all story avatars. Another HN commenter found out that he writes video encoding software, along with a franchise of profitable information iPhone apps. It is a pretty powerful idea - build what people are looking for - but not as a software soldier-of-fortune but as an owner.

vijayr 16y ago

"He said he tried selling Firefox for a while, but sales were very low due to the free competition." :)

vaksel 16y ago

that just sounds like bullshit to me: He did this, and rather than making software for clients, he created his own software products, which he put on the internet. He said that 3 days after he copied a simple idea from the rentacoder list on his website, he was making 2 sales a day. $20 per day, which " you don't just release something and then magically start making 2 sales a day...you still have to market. And I doubt many people would buy from someone who wrote in broken english. isn't it odd, how somehow you ALWAYS manage to find all these interesting people...in all these odd places. Why don't you go outside and snap a few pictures of China for us. That would at least prove that you are actually in China and not just pulling everyone's chain.

maxklein 16y ago
Well, why don't you just click on my flickr link? It's right there on my blog - a little flickr icon. I regularly post photos.