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"I have reached an age where my main purpose is not to receive messages.'" This is my goal. Avoiding unnecessary stress and interruptions is a bigger goal for
by spiderfarmer 6y ago
"I have reached an age where my main purpose is not to receive messages.'"
This is my goal. Avoiding unnecessary stress and interruptions is a bigger goal for me than creating more wealth.
It's not an age thing though. I'm 37. I still happily communicate with other people, but ideally it's only when I make or take the time for it. That's why I worked from home, in a rural area, trying to get to 100% 'passive' income by the end of 2021.
- pharmhax 6y agoWhat type of passive income are you aiming for?
- spiderfarmer 6y agoI don't want to put all my eggs in one basket, so I am growing income streams from subscriptions, ads and affiliate partnerships. I target niches without a lot of competition. The amount of customer support is negligible, customers are happy and everything is automated, apart from invoicing.
- enriquto 6y agoHaving a "passive income" is the neat way of saying social parasitism.
- andi999 6y agoMaybe there are better non-dehumanizing terms? Honestly, this term is basically the gist of nazi terminology 33-45, creating a mental analogy of a human group to animal pests.
- gunnihinn 6y agoCalm down, Bret Stephens.
- eternalban 6y agoThat is only true if you are not in banking. In banking, earning interest is an 'ancient virtue'.
- purerandomness 6y agoDon't know if you're serious or trying to be funny, but I'll bite: Around here, or in the Maker Community, "passive income" is referring to something that you put in a lot of effort into in such a way that when left alone, it keeps producing value for other people without your continuous supervision. Examples would include writing a (e)Book; creating "side dish" type products, like eCommerce plugins or themes, creating a video course, or even having an entire SaaS, and then hiring people who then slowly replace you. Interestingly, begging for money on a street corner would not fall under this definition, since it wouldn't work without you being physically there, generating the income. Did that clear things up?
- tsimionescu 6y agoI believe in this case, social parasitism refers to rent seeking, essentially. So, some of your examples are indeed examples of it. For example, if you're not contributing to a SaaS anymore, you are just collecting rent from it, which, at least after a while, it is a form of social parasitism. Of course, selling a book and living off of mew sales is not.
- hpkuarg 6y agoThat is absolutely not what rent-seeking means. Users of the SaaS are still gaining value from it -- otherwise they wouldn't be using it anymore. It is only economic rent, and rent-seeking behavior, if the OP instead focuses their energy on (for example) making it so that it is illegal to use anything other than their SaaS application for that particular purpose.
- jrochkind1 6y agoAren't payers of literal actual "rent" on a property gaining value from it, otherwise they wouldn't be paying rent on it anymore?
- nuclearnice1 6y agoIn the phrase “rent seeking” the word "rent" does not refer specifically to payment on a lease but rather to Adam Smith's division of incomes into profit, wage, and rent.
- echelon 6y ago> Having a "passive income" is the neat way of saying social parasitism If my investments yield enough for me to live on, that's my business and my doing.
- enriquto 6y agoYes, the financial market is the main enabler of unproductive social parasitism in today's world.
- echelon 6y agoSo everyone should work until they die? Sounds delightful.
- eternalban 6y agoThere are structural parasitic aspects to modern society. The distortions that result -- 0.1% owns nearly everything -- are the issue. No one is saying every person has to labor everyday of their life. Get rid of the distortions of the current set up and you will very likely have meaningful savings when you reach a reasonable retirement age. I am not in favor of UBI. In my experience, you are never given anything for free in this universe. An entire society dependent on the "welfare state" for life support? What if you say the "wrong thing" or think the wrong thing according to the "welfare state" that is putting food on your table and paying the rent?
- enriquto 6y agoNo. The welfare state (and the UBI) are great social constructions! Unfortunately, they are in danger precisely by the parasitic activities of rent-seekers.
- ghaff 6y agoYes. Much better that younger generations are involuntarily paying for you not to work than people are voluntarily paying for your SaaS/book/property/etc. /s
- spiderfarmer 6y agoReal passive income does not exist, that's why I put it between quotes. If you rent out an office building, like me, you have tenants, you have to do maintenance, you have risks. I also have a Saas with clients that I want to keep happy by improving the service proactively. I have free websites with a lot of very useful information and a tasteful amount of ads. That requires work. For mee it's stress free work as I don't have many deadlines, but that was the goal. I don't know why you think I'm a parasite. I am providing a service. If the users of that service are happy, then what is exactly is the problem? By the way, I rebuilt the office building myself. It took over 2 years. It took all my evenings and weekends, it was funded by my own money and a small loan from a bank that I paid back. I also built the office I'm sitting in right now from the ground up. I even made the desk myself. I worked hard to get where I am and I enjoyed doing it. I don't consider myself a parasite for choosing to focus on stress free work with recurring revenue. It's not easy. It's not lazy. It's a choice.
- dang 6y agoPlease don't post flamebait to HN. It leads to flamewars. Those are tedious and nasty, and we want the opposite sort of discussion here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- enriquto 6y agoOk; sorry for derailing the otherwise beautiful Knuth email thread.
- Konohamaru 6y ago"I have reached an age where my main purpose is not to receive messages." An object unable to receive messages is soon marked for garbage collection.
- spiderfarmer 6y agoLet's just say I prefer polling to pushing.
- notmyname9173 6y agoHe's not unable to receive messages, he just uses a niche messaging protocol that's openly hostile to automation.
- bregma 6y agoI have reached that age. Oh, I get sent a lot of messages. What I receive is a different story.
- noir_lord 6y agoSimilar age to you (40) and I've noticed as I've gotten older that distractions are vastly more costly for me. Til recently I was in an open office, gone 100% remote again (new role starts in a few weeks) and beyond working in an environment I control the thing I am most looking forwards to is the ability to control the distractions and environment (other than the furry ninja's at least).
- kozak 6y agoI think what Knuth means here is that he has consumed enough information in his life that he has now stopped consuming any more of it and is only generating new information instead.
- spiderfarmer 6y agoCould be. The quote was from Umberto Eco though.