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Ask HN: How do you earn your money?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you earn your money?

#121

Post by rphlx »

capex wrote: post #86

Would you like a comfortable first class seat in a jet airliner, or perhaps fly your own little 2 seater? There are advantages in flying the 2 seater. You might get sponsored by one of those large companies, and if you convince someone to fly with you, there is a chance that you'll soon be buying a 4 seater. And on and on. The jet airliner doesn't offer all those possibilities, but it does give you a very predictable…

However, other passengers on the jet will form little cliques & play Game of Thrones with each other, with the losers getting thrown out of the plane. If you fail to join the right clique, sooner or later, you'll be skydiving.

Sometimes the pilots will go crazy, screw up, or get highjacked, and you'll die by landing 30ft short of the runway, running out of fuel over the southern indian ocean, etc.

Even on a perfect flight, your talent and hard work will likely have had minimal influence.

I will take the Cessna 152 please.

Re: Ask HN: How do you earn your money?

#122

Post by einhverfr »

ethanbond wrote: post #83
russell wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Risk aversion should not be an issue in your twenties. Packing a crew of developers into a house or apartment cant be any worse than living in a dorm. Even in your thirties failures can be managed with the help of a supportive spouse (whatever the flavor of the relationship). I am a textbook case of a guy ho did not manage his entrepreneurial career properly. Like a lot of HNers I am basically introverted. Even worse…

> Risk aversion should not be an issue in your twenties. That's a difficult expectation to meet when you're $50,000 in student debt though.

That is why student debt is so insidious.

Re: Ask HN: How do you earn your money?

#123

Post by einhverfr »

nathan_f77 wrote: post #114
jawns wrote: post #14

"...can't help feeling i'm building a dream for someone else." The reason so many people are content with being employees, rather than striking it out on their own, has to do (at least in part) with their risk tolerance. If you want a stable, steady income, and you don't want to put a lot of your own money at risk, then you might find that being an employee is the way to go. Yes, other people (investors in the compan…

That's awesome to learn about worker co-ops. I was thinking about starting a software development or SAAS company where every person is a worker/owner, so it's good to know they already exist. Here's what I'd love to do if I ever started my own company: I start the company with 1 or 2 other software developers and designers. We would each own an equal number of shares. Any new team members would have to go through a…

If you are serious about this idea, contact me. (Chris at efficito dot com). I would love to help start such a business.

Re: Ask HN: How do you earn your money?

#124

Post by t0mislav »

nikolak wrote: post #57
ludwigz wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

can I ask you where you're from? There's plenty of work for good coders, you seem very delusional. Try to send some resume

Sorry, delusional about which part? In my experience, people are more likely to hire US/UK based workers for higher paying jobs than for example Indians or people from countries. Does that happen always ? No, of course not. I've had clients from a bunch of different countries. Hell, maybe I'm completely wrong - but that's how it seems to me. Maybe it's just me. I'm not excellent programmer, nor do I claim to be, mayb…

So many folks here from ex Yugoslavia (author from Slovenia, me from Croatia).

Re: Ask HN: How do you earn your money?

#125

Post by velniukas »

nikolak wrote: post #57
ludwigz wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

can I ask you where you're from? There's plenty of work for good coders, you seem very delusional. Try to send some resume

Sorry, delusional about which part? In my experience, people are more likely to hire US/UK based workers for higher paying jobs than for example Indians or people from countries. Does that happen always ? No, of course not. I've had clients from a bunch of different countries. Hell, maybe I'm completely wrong - but that's how it seems to me. Maybe it's just me. I'm not excellent programmer, nor do I claim to be, mayb…

For my startup, I hired the whole team through ODesk and Elance. I'm based in Hong Kong, and the rest: Ukraine, Moscow, Prague, Chicago, India, San Francisco. A really first rate team as well - will definitely hire like this again. It takes a long time to get rid of the time wasters on these sites (fire fast) but very good people can be found, who just want to work from home.

Re: Ask HN: How do you earn your money?

#126

Post by bananamansion »

mattront wrote: post #22

I've been in software development for 20 years now. Started to work as a student at a top consulting firm in my country, at the expense of dropping out of CS studies - real work (and earning good money) was so much more interesting than studying. After that I switched a couple of regular jobs and enjoyed every single one of them: working on real-world problems (electronic banking, multimedia production) together with…

how much is your biz making now? enough to support both of you?

Re: Ask HN: How do you earn your money?

#127

Post by crozewski »

euphemize wrote: post #41
microtonal wrote: post #18

After finishing my Master's degree, I had a couple of options (company offers, a startup idea plus co-founder, a four-year research position). I chose the research position, which cumulated in a PhD thesis. Afterwards, I worked for a company for six months in NLP and machine learning. Now I am in a research position again in a different university. The pay check may not be as good as working in some companies, but wo…

Thanks for adding an academic perspective on what is mostly an industry-centric discussion :) I struggled myself with choosing work at a startup VS going for a PhD after my Masters, ended up taking the job. I love it but still think about going back to school every once in a while. I miss the whole experimental side of academia, having loose goals and being able to fail miserably without risking somebody else's inves…

I decided to build a career in academia after working as a technician for a college that afforded me the freedom to experiment with approaches to my work. Now I am an IT manager at a small state University. My boss allows me the latitude to approach projects with creative perspectives. This fall I also plan to begin teaching, and I am continuing my work towards a Master's degree. Lastly, I find the structure of academia to be such that my off time is clearly defined (at least in comparison to working for a company in private industry), and I am able to also pursue entrepreneurial ventures.

Re: Ask HN: How do you earn your money?

#128

Post by claar »

ethanbond wrote: post #83
russell wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Risk aversion should not be an issue in your twenties. Packing a crew of developers into a house or apartment cant be any worse than living in a dorm. Even in your thirties failures can be managed with the help of a supportive spouse (whatever the flavor of the relationship). I am a textbook case of a guy ho did not manage his entrepreneurial career properly. Like a lot of HNers I am basically introverted. Even worse…

> Risk aversion should not be an issue in your twenties. That's a difficult expectation to meet when you're $50,000 in student debt though.

So you work a few years and pay it off, then you can worry about other things. Money and debt management is also an important lesson to learn young.

Re: Ask HN: How do you earn your money?

#129

Post by mattront »

bananamansion wrote: post #126
mattront wrote: post #22

I've been in software development for 20 years now. Started to work as a student at a top consulting firm in my country, at the expense of dropping out of CS studies - real work (and earning good money) was so much more interesting than studying. After that I switched a couple of regular jobs and enjoyed every single one of them: working on real-world problems (electronic banking, multimedia production) together with…

how much is your biz making now? enough to support both of you?

Yes, with the launch of Pinegrow in January we finally reached a break-even point. Plus the sales are growing so there is no reason to stop here :)

Re: Ask HN: How do you earn your money?

#130

Post by mietek »

zackmorris wrote: post #112
russell wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey Zach, advice to you from an industry elder. From your comments, I would put you in your late 30s, young enough to be scrappy but experienced enough to be on a founding team. The only reason for doing is to gain industry domain experience. (Software doesnt count.) The domain can suggest startup possibilities. Consulting income is a trap, unless you make massive savings. Dont look back at what might have been. I wo…

Hah you got me, I'm 36. I also agree that consulting can be a trap, but for the reason that it's not scalable. A consulting firm is only worth about as much as its employees, so there's no real exit strategy. I guess I'm kind of lucky that I don't live in a big city so can afford to dabble in it. But it does sting sometimes to not receive residual income for past work. Cool to hear about your earlier escapades. My bu…

FWIW, I enjoyed your game. I especially liked the way the day and night cycle shifted the colour palette. Made a lasting impression.
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