Earlier quoted context omitted.
True, but someone has got to be willing to pay for what you do.
There's a "Purpose" venn diagram for this http://www.humanbusiness.eu/purpose-venn-diagram/
Most scientific researchers fit exactly in the middle.
Ask HN: What's the best business to start in 2022?
21–30 of 31 posts
Re: Ask HN: What's the best business to start in 2022?
#22The best jobs for society seem to be the worst appreciated and compensated. Corporate tax accountants "earn" orders of magnitude more than janitors and nurses. Media puppets earn far far more than investigative journalists. Lawyers are respected more than teachers, in many ways. It's all absolutely batty. That said, seems to me the best compensated people, with the least friction in their career, and with the least a…
> Lawyers are respected more than teachers, in many ways. Wonder what those ways are - in my environment (and it's very business oriented, very far from teaching), teachers are respected way more than lawyers. Yea, lawyers make more cash, but it's totally different story and has nothing to do with respect.
The cash is a big, big deal. And it comes with benefits like having more time off, better health care, a higher quality of life. Cash is intimately linked; highly, highly correlated with respect from strangers. You can't ignore it.
Lawyers can afford better clothes, giving them instantly more respect from strangers. They eat at more expensive restaurants, shop at higher class shops, fly in a better class. Their respect might be shallow and paid for, but again, let's not ignore it.
Now think of two generic families - one has a kid who just graduated law school, one has a kid who just graduated teacher's college. I don't think the teacher's family would be significantly more proud, in shallow terms. Probably the opposite, and that's sad af.
Think of what happens when a cop stops a teacher, compared to when they stop a lawyer - who are they more scared of overreaching with?
In many situations, the lawyer has more connections, and more capability in many ways to inflict consequences on people who mess with them.
I've heard many times that teachers are overpaid - seriously, I have. People complain that their job is too fulfilling (which is insane, for sure, but I do hear it). People are envious of the three month "holiday" every year, ignorant of all that needs to be done in that time.
I'm neither a teacher or a lawyer, but I know many teachers who deserve far better lives, and many lawyers who deserve far, far less.
Re: Ask HN: What's the best business to start in 2022?
#23The best business to start is one that really excites you. Starting a business is a serious life commitment, and you will be doing little but working on it. It has to be something inherently rewarding to you.
Making money excites me. I don't really care too much about what it is, I find that as I earn more and more money, the business starts to excite me more and more. I'll sell potatoes if I make millions, I'll sell my used underwear if it makes millions. I don't want to do something that I hate , but I'll be ok if it is "average" interest. Plus, nothing excites me...so what do I do? Well, sleeping all day every day is e…
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Re: Ask HN: What's the best business to start in 2022?
#24The best business to start is one that really excites you. Starting a business is a serious life commitment, and you will be doing little but working on it. It has to be something inherently rewarding to you.
Making money excites me. I don't really care too much about what it is, I find that as I earn more and more money, the business starts to excite me more and more. I'll sell potatoes if I make millions, I'll sell my used underwear if it makes millions. I don't want to do something that I hate , but I'll be ok if it is "average" interest. Plus, nothing excites me...so what do I do? Well, sleeping all day every day is e…
This.
Do you know what excites me? Do you know what I'm passionate about? Drinking, fucking, playing video games, supporting my family, gardening, and creating art (not necessarily in that order). Can I get paid to do those things? No, and if I could, it'd pale in comparison to what I might earn as a urinal cake factory owner. I may not be excited by manufacturing urinal cakes, but I'm certainly excited by the money, which I then use to pursue my true passions.
Re: Ask HN: What's the best business to start in 2022?
#25The best business to start is one that really excites you. Starting a business is a serious life commitment, and you will be doing little but working on it. It has to be something inherently rewarding to you.
Making money excites me. I don't really care too much about what it is, I find that as I earn more and more money, the business starts to excite me more and more. I'll sell potatoes if I make millions, I'll sell my used underwear if it makes millions. I don't want to do something that I hate , but I'll be ok if it is "average" interest. Plus, nothing excites me...so what do I do? Well, sleeping all day every day is e…
If money is your sole goal, then you might be happiest working for a FAANG company, engaging in investments such as real estate, etc.
Starting a business is probably not for you. The odds of you making bank in a relatively short period of time are very low. The odds of your business failing are very high (regardless of your motivation for starting a business).
Re: Ask HN: What's the best business to start in 2022?
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
Making money excites me. I don't really care too much about what it is, I find that as I earn more and more money, the business starts to excite me more and more. I'll sell potatoes if I make millions, I'll sell my used underwear if it makes millions. I don't want to do something that I hate , but I'll be ok if it is "average" interest. Plus, nothing excites me...so what do I do? Well, sleeping all day every day is e…
If money is your sole goal, then you might be happiest working for a FAANG company, engaging in investments such as real estate, etc. Starting a business is probably not for you. The odds of you making bank in a relatively short period of time are very low. The odds of your business failing are very high (regardless of your motivation for starting a business).
Sorry, don't mean to be mean here, but this is exactly what I'm talking about.
To start out, my last comment not about me. It's about "loving what you do" unthinking mantra. Which I think the whole idea is a load of crap.
As far as your saying to work in a FAANG....that pretty much exemplifies my point. You prove it for me in your first sentence. You do realize that it is more difficult to get a job at Google than it is to get into an Ivy League school? And let me tell you, there's on way in heck that I, or 99.999999% of the USA is going to get into an Ivy League school, let alone Google...want to see my GPA? I graduated with a 2.01...2/100s of not graduating because of GPA. So yeah. No way in heck am I going to get into a Ivy League shool OR a FAANG company.
There are people who have to work at McDonalds or as a cashier at 7-11 their whole life. They can't do anything else. Do you think they like it, or hate it? If someone has a high school education and is not a Stanford graduate, that's what it is. Minimum wage job for so many. And no real hope of getting more.
So prattle on about having to love your job, otherwise you're not going to work at it and will fail...I've always seen this as the height of arrogance. Don't get me wrong, it's not bad if you love what you do. But if someone with all the advantages in the world (university degree, great parents, etc) is going to whine because they don't LOVE what they do, while the lowly peons have to suck it up and work two minimum wage jobs to make it...just total arrogance, and tone deaf by most of the startup community. The world is chock-o-block full of people that hate their jobs. But they go in, every day, to a job they hate, to support themselves and their family.
That's all I'm saying. And, this is not meant to be aimed at you personally, because there are SO many people that repeat this. It's aimed at the startup community's philosophy of you must love what you do or fail.
Re: Ask HN: What's the best business to start in 2022?
#27In my opinion, if you are engaging in the brainstorming method of saying "I want to start a business," that will never get you anywhere. Starting a business is about seeing a problem, solution, and/or opportunity, and being able to execute it with domain expertise, all at the right time. Of course, it's also about grinding out sales leads and finding paying customers – a lot of is is sinking way more hours into it th…
This isn't true. Many successful, profitable businesses were started by just surveying the landscape and being better/different to something pre-existing.
I think the process you're describing is a lot more targeted and. methodical than the vague question of "what business should I start?"
The person who comes forward with prompts like "I'm a full stack developer, what problems do you think I could solve with software?" or "I work in hospitality, what's on your wish list for when you go out to eat/stay at a hotel?" that's going to produce a lot more useful feedback.
When one asks "what business should I start? I want to quit my job" it comes across to me as "Work bad, how do I plant a money tree in my backyard?"
Re: Ask HN: What's the best business to start in 2022?
#28The best business to start is one that really excites you. Starting a business is a serious life commitment, and you will be doing little but working on it. It has to be something inherently rewarding to you.
Making money excites me. I don't really care too much about what it is, I find that as I earn more and more money, the business starts to excite me more and more. I'll sell potatoes if I make millions, I'll sell my used underwear if it makes millions. I don't want to do something that I hate , but I'll be ok if it is "average" interest. Plus, nothing excites me...so what do I do? Well, sleeping all day every day is e…
No post body was provided.
Re: Ask HN: What's the best business to start in 2022?
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Lawyers are respected more than teachers, in many ways. Wonder what those ways are - in my environment (and it's very business oriented, very far from teaching), teachers are respected way more than lawyers. Yea, lawyers make more cash, but it's totally different story and has nothing to do with respect.
The cash is a big, big deal. And it comes with benefits like having more time off, better health care, a higher quality of life. Cash is intimately linked; highly, highly correlated with respect from strangers. You can't ignore it. Lawyers can afford better clothes, giving them instantly more respect from strangers. They eat at more expensive restaurants, shop at higher class shops, fly in a better class. Their respe…
It may be a cultural thing, but it does seem to me you use prosperity and respect as interchangeable terms, while they are not.
If police guy stops a lawyer he indeed wouldn't possibly mess with him but certainly not because of respect, quite the opposite. The is russian saying which can be translated as "don't touch shit - it won't smell".
I personally don't have respect to someone just because they have 7 digits in bank account or huge villa in LA/SF. Or went to Cornell/Harvard - thanks to life experiences I've seen a lot of graduates from both institutions who were dumb af. That just doesn't make any sense.
Again, it may be a cultural thing, but respect is something achieved by someone's actions, not assets. I know few people (sadly very few) who sacrificed their wealth for a more meaningful things in life. Their assets are next to nothing, yet respect to them is tremendous.
Saying teachers are overpaid is ridiculous though. Wonder if people who say that send their kids to public schools.
Re: Ask HN: What's the best business to start in 2022?
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
If money is your sole goal, then you might be happiest working for a FAANG company, engaging in investments such as real estate, etc. Starting a business is probably not for you. The odds of you making bank in a relatively short period of time are very low. The odds of your business failing are very high (regardless of your motivation for starting a business).
Sorry, don't mean to be mean here, but this is exactly what I'm talking about. To start out, my last comment not about me . It's about "loving what you do" unthinking mantra . Which I think the whole idea is a load of crap. As far as your saying to work in a FAANG....that pretty much exemplifies my point. You prove it for me in your first sentence. You do realize that it is more difficult to get a job at Google than…
> It's about "loving what you do" unthinking mantra. Which I think the whole idea is a load of crap.
Which is not the mantra I was intending to evoke.
My only point is that starting a business is something that consumes your entire life. You will eat, drink, and live the business 24/7 for a very long time -- if what you're doing isn't something that you inherently derive enjoyment from, it will make your life very unpleasant and reduce your ability to make it succeed.
This is very different from some sort of bland "do what you love" thing. This is recognizing the human truth of what starting a business entails.