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Making $60k a month from a podcast on software engineering

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Re: Making $60k a month from a podcast on software engineering

#71

Post by coconutrandom »

debt wrote: post #69
coconutrandom wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the past we would poke holes in the start-up idea or the weekend hacking project, but in good fun and there would be solid feedback generally. Having someone execute their idea, and then go out of their way to explain the process to the rest of us should be a source of encouragement. It makes me sad just how personal the dismissiveness on HN has become.

I don’t see how it’s dismissive. It’s concise. Here let me waste my time telling you how I hacked advertising to make xyz product with a gazillion users OR I can just tell you I started out with many hundreds of thousands of dollars and just spent way into success. Would’ve saved me some time idk

Money can influence but won't guarantee success. They still need to execute on something. And surely at some point in describing process for us, there could be is a nugget of knowledge that triggers some insight in someone else.

Re: Making $60k a month from a podcast on software engineering

#72

Post by givehimagun »

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #57
nardi wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do feel a little bad about this comment--it's probably overly snarky. Maybe he won that 250 grand playing poker from a small nest egg that he earned at a minimum wage job. And he isn't claiming to be sharing the secret of success--he's just sharing his experience, which is valuable regardless of his beginnings. I don't know. Something about this rubbed me the wrong way, but it probably says something more about me…

if you're 19 and you have 250 grand you are maybe not super rich but pretty rich at that point. frankly, cutting with ockam's razor leads me to conclude that super rich is a more likely explanation than playing poker from a small nest egg and then going and losing it all.

Can you quantify in terms of percentage how you define super rich vs rich?

In my mind, rich is top 20% (income of $134k or more) of society and super rich is top 5% (income of $214k or more). I'm wondering if that correlates to your thoughts.

Re: Making $60k a month from a podcast on software engineering

#73

Post by socialist_coder »

Damn, that is a lot of revenue! Congrats!

Can you share some stats about your advertisers? Like, how many advertisers do you have per month? How many per show? What is their average spend? How many months do they usually stay on as an advertiser? Do they normally re-sub automatically or do you have to get them to commit to another month, every month? How do you usually find new advertisers, cold calling them or ?

And a personal question, I only listen to US Political podcasts, but I always press the "skip 30 seconds" button on ads. Why do you think there is a button that makes it super easy to skip ads built into the Podcasts app? How do people creating the podcasts feel about that? Do you have any stats on how many people skip the ads vs listen to the whole thing?

Re: Making $60k a month from a podcast on software engineering

#74

Post by shard972 »

nardi wrote: post #16

How to make $60k/mo from a podcast: When I was 19 there was a month when I played poorly and lost ~$250k. I quit shortly after that. It took me awhile to recover my psychological bearings. Step 1: Be super rich.

Or more specifically, be born by rich parents.

Re: Making $60k a month from a podcast on software engineering

#75

Post by 616c »

Just came to say so excited to read this and on the top of HN! Jeff is a hero of mine.

Jeff, I once responded to your survey. I lost a ton of weight abroad with nothing going for me bc your podcast and the Changelog podcast gave me the weird fuel I needed to just run but also learn and be engaged mentally. I find your career choice from Amazon inspiring as a transition (not to mention poker) and you always ask insightful questions. I am trying to get into security with dev work on top bc you make me want to be in that culture, after a decade of avoiding it as a jaded IT guy.

I have sent every group of developers and tech enthusiasts links to one or more episodes. I need to make time to contribute to the open source SE Daily apps. Just because.

Thanks for building me an ethos so I don't have to for myself. ;-)

Re: Making $60k a month from a podcast on software engineering

#78

Post by holman »

wwalser wrote: post #37
nardi wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do feel a little bad about this comment--it's probably overly snarky. Maybe he won that 250 grand playing poker from a small nest egg that he earned at a minimum wage job. And he isn't claiming to be sharing the secret of success--he's just sharing his experience, which is valuable regardless of his beginnings. I don't know. Something about this rubbed me the wrong way, but it probably says something more about me…

I know someone who did this during college. I had a friend in college — let's call him Sam — with whom I paired on most CS projects. It was useful to find a partner who was as studious as yourself to avoid having to deal with anyone else's potential BS and end up doing all the work yourself. Sam seemed like a completely normal guy where normal is… we share some of the same interests. Sam wasn't from money, worked har…

Same. Especially at poker's hottest peak, I had a number of friends who ended up going really large on online gambling (and they didn't come from money, either- just had built up a bank roll over a few years). After awhile they found themselves experiencing these huge $xx,xxx swings on a daily and sometimes hourly basis. I think they intellectually understood what that meant, but once you got to that level you kind of have to put the idea of it being a lot of money aside to be able to properly gamble it (if there is a "proper" way to gamble it).

Anyway, one friend in particular told me he was making ~$200k a year, when we were around 22. Asked him about taxes and he said he had never paid a dime. So, uh, that could have been his greatest gamble right there.

Re: Making $60k a month from a podcast on software engineering

#79

Post by matte_black »

givehimagun wrote: post #72
bryanrasmussen wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if you're 19 and you have 250 grand you are maybe not super rich but pretty rich at that point. frankly, cutting with ockam's razor leads me to conclude that super rich is a more likely explanation than playing poker from a small nest egg and then going and losing it all.

Can you quantify in terms of percentage how you define super rich vs rich? In my mind, rich is top 20% (income of $134k or more) of society and super rich is top 5% (income of $214k or more). I'm wondering if that correlates to your thoughts.

Your “rich” is just upper class, and your “super rich” is mostly just well off.

Anyone in the 500k to 1000k range are the almost rich. These are the people who will feel “tax hikes on the wealthy” the most. On paper their income is great but then taxes bump them down a social class.

When you clear the 1000k range and are well on your way to 2000k, after taxes you’re still making a million or so a year depending where you live, so still safely a millionaire and thus rich (two commas club).

However, it’s worth noting there are more and more millionaires these days. These are “inflation” millionaires. A true “millionaire” in the spirit of what the word meant in the time it was first coined (early 1900s) would be someone who has a net worth of around 25 million USD today.

Someday merely being a millionaire won’t be rich or impressive at all.

Re: Making $60k a month from a podcast on software engineering

#80

Post by bigtunacan »

givehimagun wrote: post #72
bryanrasmussen wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if you're 19 and you have 250 grand you are maybe not super rich but pretty rich at that point. frankly, cutting with ockam's razor leads me to conclude that super rich is a more likely explanation than playing poker from a small nest egg and then going and losing it all.

Can you quantify in terms of percentage how you define super rich vs rich? In my mind, rich is top 20% (income of $134k or more) of society and super rich is top 5% (income of $214k or more). I'm wondering if that correlates to your thoughts.

In my mind there a big difference between being “rich” and being a “high income earner” (HIE).

Someone who is a HIE may have a better chance of becoming rich if they invest and are good at money management. On the other hand they may be very bad with money and living paycheck to paycheck despite this.

Someone who is rich has freedom. They have enough money in investments to live off of the returns indefinitely.

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