Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming? • Hacker News Board

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

#681

Post by muzani » Tue, Apr 23, 2019, 2:45 AM UTC

onemoresoop wrote: post #624

gdhbcc wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Theres a reason why it was profitable, low labor costs

Yes but seeing the numbers I think this person could have paid workers more and still make a profit. I don't know if it's greed or robot like optimization

Well, look at it this way, by increasing salaries 20%, we'd double losses on a pessimistic estimate, and make no profit on a realistic estimate. Of course everyone starts a business being optimistic; businesses are gambles after all. But nobody wants to lose money.

It's more fear than greed. As an employee, you're always working hard trying to not drown. As a business owner, that feeling is multiplied. You don't just have to feed your kids, you have to feed your employees' kids. You can lose $500/month as an employee or $2000/month as a business owner.

But even if the pay was doubled, it would still barely be a "living wage". There's an argument that traditional businesses drive down prices and drive wages up, which is true, but it's still pretty bad.

I'd rather focus on startups, which creates few jobs, and destroys other jobs, but there's plenty of incentive to pay people well, and their salary scales well with the company's success.

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

#682

Post by metters » Tue, Apr 23, 2019, 2:47 AM UTC

My wife is from China, while I am from Germany. Our side business is selling milk powder for babies to Chinese mothers.

Makes quite good money but does not fulfill in anyway.

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

#683

Post by muzani » Tue, Apr 23, 2019, 2:56 AM UTC

frankus wrote: post #679

This is unlikely to be reproducible, but I bought a foreclosed condo in Seattle in 2013, did a few weeks’ worth of work (spread out over a year or so) redoing the kitchen and bathroom, and sold it not quite three years later for $120k more than I paid for it. I also have a couple of super simple apps in the iTunes Store that earn about an iPad a year worth of money.

This seems very reproducible, or at least many people focus on doing this. Donald Trump is probably the most popular example of someone who got rich buying things at low value and fixing it up for a large profit.

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

#684

Post by hkhanna » Tue, Apr 23, 2019, 3:52 AM UTC

lesswrong wrote: post #49

hkhanna wrote: post #15

I'm a lawyer who doesn't do much (any) marketing. But when someone gets referred and calls or sends an email asking for help with setting up an LLC, helping wind-down or sell their business, or even something small like reviewing an NDA, I can jump in. I'm solo, so I don't have any overhead and I can charge far less than anyone else. This is also entirely a side gig, so volume is so low that I can be responsive, help…

Got any advice on getting a referral to someone like you? I’m a founder who could use some advice independent of the company’s counsel. I’ve tried my non-startup network but am only getting leads for the big firms. How do I find an attorney like you? (New account for privacy reasons)

Hey lesswrong - my contact info is now in my HN profile. Feel free to reach out.

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

#685

Post by shermablanca » Tue, Apr 23, 2019, 5:09 AM UTC

I started a conference (Reactathon.com) as one of the various channels of income I had (entrepreneur, not FTE). One of my sponsors liked it so much that they asked me to run theirs. Now their conference has expanded to 3x per year in 3 cities, and I’m still helping to run it. And I now consider myself a full time conference consultant.

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

#686

Post by vivekananda » Tue, Apr 23, 2019, 5:09 AM UTC

metters wrote: post #682

My wife is from China, while I am from Germany. Our side business is selling milk powder for babies to Chinese mothers. Makes quite good money but does not fulfill in anyway.

I got to know about through ADVChina's video. Here's the link if anyone is interested - https://youtu.be/YQm5FZMforg

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

#687

Post by checkyoursudo » Tue, Apr 23, 2019, 5:17 AM UTC

agumonkey wrote: post #560

cameldrv wrote: post #545

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's quite toxic. It causes cancer among other problems. A lot of things used to be Cadmium plated because it's an excellent rustproofer. Some things in the aerospace world still are, because for some things, the safety risk from corrosion outweighs the health risk. It's not a great idea to grind or sand Cadmium plated items, because it kicks the Cd into a fine dust that you will inhale and will be absorbed into your…

So far I only brushed it, and am not sure my model is Cd plated or not but well. The more you dig into materials, the more you realize you were handling toxic things all the time without knowing it.

My father-in-law as a kid used to go to the junkyard and break open thermometers and dump the mercury out into his hand. Seems like he did it a lot. Dunno if he ever suffered any health consequences because of it; but, you know, he didn't know any better. He just thought it was neat.

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

#688

Post by halfnibble » Tue, Apr 23, 2019, 5:45 AM UTC

_gi12 wrote: post #390

paulgb wrote: post #78

Betting on politics on PredictIt. I wouldn’t recommend it as an income stream, but having an interest in probability, markets, and international politics, it has taught me to read the news more objectively.

PredictIt was pretty fun for me until I bet ~$250 on Hillary in 2016. I haven't touched binary options since then.

I've made a ton of money in PredictIt just by betting from a GOP perspective (I'm guessing not many "investors" go that way, so the odds are skewed).

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

#689

Post by Shogoot » Tue, Apr 23, 2019, 5:51 AM UTC

confounded wrote: post #432

Shogoot wrote: post #378

I get about 1/6 of my yearly salary, a year, doing software job as an consultant for my ex work place. They did not replace me when I abruptly quit in 2017, giving them 3 months of notice. They have been a steady source of income since. I adjust my price yearly adding inflation + 2%

Bit how many hours do you work for 1/6th of the salary?

About 3-4 hrs a weekp

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

#690

Post by halfnibble » Tue, Apr 23, 2019, 5:51 AM UTC

qznc wrote: post #589

m0zg wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Should be pretty easy: just check what CNN says and bet in the opposite direction.

The problem with such predictions (likewise stock market) is that they are not binary. The question is not if a stock goes up or down. The question is "when?". There is no such thing as "opposite" of a date (in a useful sense). There is actually another questions "how much?". There is also no opposite for that.

But many predictions ARE basically binary. I made so much money on the "Will Trump be impeached by the end of 2019?" question. I can't believe how many people put money on that.