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Show HN: Quantifying opportunity cost with a deliberately "simple" web app

shouldhavebought.com

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Re: Show HN: Quantifying opportunity cost with a deliberately "simple" web app

#21

Post by nkrisc »

I first heard about bitcoin sometime in college (2007-2011). At the time I thought about buying a couple just for fun (might have been a few dollars worth? Can’t remember). But I decided it was a waste of money.

And at the time, it was a complete waste of money. I don’t regret it at all.

Only with knowledge of the future would it have been worthwhile.

But today when I see what cryptocurrency has become, I regret my decision even less.

There are countless ways I could have made millions if I knew the future. I don’t waste my time regretting those.

Re: Show HN: Quantifying opportunity cost with a deliberately "simple" web app

#22

Post by jonplackett »

nkrisc wrote: post #21

I first heard about bitcoin sometime in college (2007-2011). At the time I thought about buying a couple just for fun (might have been a few dollars worth? Can’t remember). But I decided it was a waste of money. And at the time, it was a complete waste of money. I don’t regret it at all. Only with knowledge of the future would it have been worthwhile. But today when I see what cryptocurrency has become, I regret my d…

I was gonna buy $1000 of bitcoin in 2016 but I couldn’t find my passport to verify my identity with Coinbase and then forgot about it. Ah well.

Re: Show HN: Quantifying opportunity cost with a deliberately "simple" web app

#23

Post by rkomorn »

jonplackett wrote: post #22
nkrisc wrote: post #21

I first heard about bitcoin sometime in college (2007-2011). At the time I thought about buying a couple just for fun (might have been a few dollars worth? Can’t remember). But I decided it was a waste of money. And at the time, it was a complete waste of money. I don’t regret it at all. Only with knowledge of the future would it have been worthwhile. But today when I see what cryptocurrency has become, I regret my d…

I was gonna buy $1000 of bitcoin in 2016 but I couldn’t find my passport to verify my identity with Coinbase and then forgot about it. Ah well.

Would you have $100k now or would you have sold it when it tripled to $3000 because that would've felt like a really good return already, though?

Re: Show HN: Quantifying opportunity cost with a deliberately "simple" web app

#24

Post by fragmede »

My question is, why would you do that to yourself? Living with regrets of the past that would never have been, anyway, seems like a recipe for sadness and despair. Maybe my sense of fun or humor or whatever is off, but I just don't get doing this to yourself, man. You could have hooked into them and thought $1,000 is the highest it'll go and sold them all them. Who knows‽

No offense meant. Just my two Satoshis.

Re: Show HN: Quantifying opportunity cost with a deliberately "simple" web app

#25

Post by jonplackett »

rkomorn wrote: post #23
jonplackett wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was gonna buy $1000 of bitcoin in 2016 but I couldn’t find my passport to verify my identity with Coinbase and then forgot about it. Ah well.

Would you have $100k now or would you have sold it when it tripled to $3000 because that would've felt like a really good return already, though?

Yeah this is the story I tell myself to make me feel better. I may well have even more regret! Or thought I was an investment genius and invested loads more and then sold it at a bad time.

Re: Show HN: Quantifying opportunity cost with a deliberately "simple" web app

#26

Post by b0bbi »

jonplackett wrote: post #22
nkrisc wrote: post #21

I first heard about bitcoin sometime in college (2007-2011). At the time I thought about buying a couple just for fun (might have been a few dollars worth? Can’t remember). But I decided it was a waste of money. And at the time, it was a complete waste of money. I don’t regret it at all. Only with knowledge of the future would it have been worthwhile. But today when I see what cryptocurrency has become, I regret my d…

I was gonna buy $1000 of bitcoin in 2016 but I couldn’t find my passport to verify my identity with Coinbase and then forgot about it. Ah well.

would you keep it till today?

Re: Show HN: Quantifying opportunity cost with a deliberately "simple" web app

#27

Post by b0bbi »

nothrabannosir wrote: post #20

> He made a bold claim that one day it might reach $100k per coin. I remember thinking it sounded unrealistic - and even if it wasn't, I wasn't going to break my rule. > ... The opportunity cost came out to tens of millions of dollars. It doesn't sound, though, like you'd have held until 100k. This calculation only applies to people who'd have held for some reason; e.g. just after the conversation, you slipped into a…

Haha, or maybe the flash drive got lost in the junk at home :)

I would have sold it when I made X2 - good profit.

Re: Show HN: Quantifying opportunity cost with a deliberately "simple" web app

#28

Post by b0bbi »

jbjbjbjb wrote: post #15

Most reasonable people will not have enough conviction to make a serious amount of money even if they’re right. I think a better question is how much would you have invested to make $500k/ $1mn (or whatever a life changing sum is for you) on the investment then you can consider whether you had the stomach to do that.

By the way, a "Reverse Mode" (calculating the initial stake needed to hit exactly $1M) is actually a brilliant idea.

But to your underlying point - it's the hard truth. People often act like they have infinite time and keep putting decisions off for "later". And then, boom - your peak earning years are behind you, boom - you're 70. This terminal is basically a receipt for that exact kind of procrastination.

Re: Show HN: Quantifying opportunity cost with a deliberately "simple" web app

#30

Post by b0bbi »

endymion-light wrote: post #11

This is quite a fun website, what have you used for the backend, i've been wanting to get more deployments for small web tools but the hug of death always worries me

I'm unsing Laravel. I think any framework you are familiar with will do. I'm using frameworks even for single page application, cuz you never know how it turned.

I think the danger of "hug of death" is overblown. Hardware gets more powerful over time, and bandwidth expands. I had a project with about 60k unique users per day, and that traffic lasted for several weeks. I didn't take any special measures, although I was prepared to switch to a more powerful server.

I'd be worried about what to do to get to 60k users. :)

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