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Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?

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Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?

#391

Post by josinalvo »

IanCal wrote: post #180
mdorazio wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If OP is selling via Shapeways, it's printed and shipped by Shapeways in the user's choice of material. From the link, it looks like the only option for this one is Nylon, but that's about the strongest plastic you can get for things like gears.

Not necessarily suggesting it for this, but for anyone not used to shapeways they have a wide range of materials, with plastics of different types, metals (I have silver wedding rings I got printed there) and ceramics. I think sellers may be able to limit the materials to known working ones (each material has it's own requirements).

> metals (I have silver wedding rings I got printed there)

was it to save money? or for some unique design?

Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?

#392

Post by iamrecursion »

I run an audio engineering business.

At first it was just a project of passion, but years later and a not insignificant investment in gear, software, and other equipment has left me with a side business that nets a tidy bit of income.

It’s also something that I adore doing, and hence a massive plus. I get to mix and master a whole variety of music, from classical to ambient, to EDM, and it’s always a pleasure to work with artists whether they’re new to it all or seasoned professionals.

Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?

#393

Post by jeremy_wiebe »

tonyarkles wrote: post #158
xfitm3 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Start with something you want to build and work backwards. How about a simple picture frame?

> simple picture frame :D To get a solid feeling of satisfaction from that project, I’d recommend a picture frame that doesn’t require mitres in the corners. Getting the length and angle exactly right is pretty frustrating for a beginner.

I’ve don’t some crown moulding and can confirm... it’s the corners that are a killer. For me, silicone covered all. :-)

Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?

#394

Post by scarface74 »

jsf01 wrote: post #294
asciident wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was actually thinking about ethics a lot while I was doing this little project. By ethics do you mean morals or something different? What framework would you suggest for determining the ethics/morals of doing something like this, where we're playing by the legal rules by trying to optimize for our own benefit?

Think about it like this. The logical conclusion of people acting like you did is that credit card issuers increase interest rates to make up for their losses. That makes life worse for everyone but the people exploiting the loophole. You’re no different from the people who exaggerate their losses to insurance companies in order to claim extra insurance money. Because of them, premiums have gone up. You might see you…

I’m going to preface what I’m about to write by saying yes I understand life happens and I’ve carried a balance on a credit card charging high interest at one point in my life.

- If you have a credit card with decent cash back/rewards program. The interest rate is going to be higher. If you are carrying a balance month to month. You’re doing it wrong.

- If life happens and you do end up with a balance and your credit is decent, you should be able to get a no interest for x months, no interest balance transfer.

Credit Cards aren’t a life necessity. Homeowners insurance and car insurance are. Taking advantage of the rules as they exist is not unethical. Insurance fraud is both unethical and illegal.

Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?

#395

Post by scarface74 »

Gpetrium wrote: post #319
asciident wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the reply. There is a clear difference between claiming extra insurance money and what I'm doing: lying to get more insurance money is fraud, while what I'm doing is exactly what the service is intended for (sending money to others for free). But using your framework of, "if everyone did this, how would this affect the business and others using the business," then I (and many others) are doing a lot of oth…

You may be following the letter of the law but not the spirit of the law. The cashback was created as an incentive, you found a way to exploit the business model for personal gain in ways that can have an impact on others ability to enjoy the system while having a material impact on the provider of the service. Most in your position will say "but I am only a small piece of the cog" however, if a small minority starts…

Well, everyone that takes a VC subsidized ride on Uber is also having a negative impact on their business. If the business makes rules that are unsustainable for their business, it’s their fault. They could very easily set limits to curb abuse.

Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?

#396

Post by IanCal »

josinalvo wrote: post #391
IanCal wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not necessarily suggesting it for this, but for anyone not used to shapeways they have a wide range of materials, with plastics of different types, metals (I have silver wedding rings I got printed there) and ceramics. I think sellers may be able to limit the materials to known working ones (each material has it's own requirements).

> metals (I have silver wedding rings I got printed there) was it to save money? or for some unique design?

The goal was the unique design, but they were cheap too for wedding rings. I recorded each of us saying something to the other, then took the waveforms and made a ring from each one. Printing came to about £40 for each ring.

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipMECi57zKtD6arv_-sL83gp...

Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?

#397

Post by rayraegah »

Sileni wrote: post #188
rayraegah wrote: post #13

Launched in 2016 for free. Started making money in 2018 with $3,000+ MMR. Referral only (side) business. I work full-time as an engineer/principal in growth. I conduct a form of ethnography, embedding myself in the lives of consumers the way Margaret Mead did among Samoans. I interviews my subjects and the people around them, itemizing the contents of their home (photographing and videotaping), and accompany them as…

I think this is a fascinating project, but I have to ask. How do you get your foot in the door with consumers? I'd feel a bit sketched out if someone showed up and just asked to follow me around for a while. What's the incentive?

Getting started was (really) hard. There are agencies out there who enable the connection between the researcher and consumers for a fee. These agencies usually have a directory of people who volunteer for this type of research work.

It also helps to build a network, for starters I partner-up with many prominent content producers on YouTube and Twitter and pay them a small fee for introductions.

I also pay the people I study on the field (but not always, some are happy to help once they understand what it's for). A lot say no, but you only need a few yes. It's about drawing insights from a small set of data.

Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?

#398

Post by IanCal »

scarface74 wrote: post #395
Gpetrium wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You may be following the letter of the law but not the spirit of the law. The cashback was created as an incentive, you found a way to exploit the business model for personal gain in ways that can have an impact on others ability to enjoy the system while having a material impact on the provider of the service. Most in your position will say "but I am only a small piece of the cog" however, if a small minority starts…

Well, everyone that takes a VC subsidized ride on Uber is also having a negative impact on their business. If the business makes rules that are unsustainable for their business, it’s their fault. They could very easily set limits to curb abuse.

Uber are obviously trying to get people to use their service. If using their service is bad for them, that's their fault because they were deliberately trying to encourage a behaviour that was detrimental to their business.

That is different from finding a way through the rules which is clearly unintended.

Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?

#399

Post by Starknaked »

IanCal wrote: post #387
Starknaked wrote: post #382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not the user's responsibilty to ensure these incentives are sustainable. Look at what happened with the Hoover free flight program.

The user is the one, well, using it! Sure, in some cases it's not obvious if you're abusing the system but this seems pretty clear.

The best way I've seen businesses get around this issue is to just have an upper limit on the incentive like interest applies only to the first $x. Its often a nice bonus for people that were going to use them anyway but not enough for people to justify exploiting the incentive alone.

Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?

#400

Post by rayraegah »

alexose wrote: post #77
rayraegah wrote: post #13

Launched in 2016 for free. Started making money in 2018 with $3,000+ MMR. Referral only (side) business. I work full-time as an engineer/principal in growth. I conduct a form of ethnography, embedding myself in the lives of consumers the way Margaret Mead did among Samoans. I interviews my subjects and the people around them, itemizing the contents of their home (photographing and videotaping), and accompany them as…

This makes me so happy as an anthropologist-turned-programmer.

I'm trying to go from programmer -> anthropologist. I could use all the help, advise, and connections I can get.
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