Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Do you know how much money would you make instead of sitting in Facebook/Reddit?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 36 posts

Re: Do you know how much money would you make instead of sitting in Facebook/Reddit?

#21

Post by gtirloni »

7webpages wrote: post #13
ponsin wrote: post #11

I earn a monthly salary. That means that as long as I avoid getting fired I earn the same amount regardless of how much time I spend on Reddit/Facebook.

I see. Are there activities that you would consider productive (you would like to do more) and activities that are non-productive? There is an idea to assign a positive hourly rate for good time spent and a negative hourly rate to other activities in the internet. The app would track that time spend and show balance to gamify productivity rise.

You definitely have to make the hourly customizable. Just stating the obvious but people value things differently.

They could assign a positive rate for Reddit time.

Re: Do you know how much money would you make instead of sitting in Facebook/Reddit?

#23

Post by 7webpages »

gtirloni wrote: post #21
7webpages wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see. Are there activities that you would consider productive (you would like to do more) and activities that are non-productive? There is an idea to assign a positive hourly rate for good time spent and a negative hourly rate to other activities in the internet. The app would track that time spend and show balance to gamify productivity rise.

You definitely have to make the hourly customizable. Just stating the obvious but people value things differently. They could assign a positive rate for Reddit time.

Exactly, that was the takeout from this discussion.

I'm going to make functionality to assign a rate for each website, a positive or negative one. Even rates for different parts of the website. Also, a potentially useful feature is to make a cap, like the first 30 min per day does not count.

Re: Do you know how much money would you make instead of sitting in Facebook/Reddit?

#24

Post by tamalpais »

1. Instead of just looking at the opportunity cost also factor in the actual costs, e.g., Netflix requires a paid subscription in addition to time.

2. You could include affiliate links to services for earning money in free time as an alternative to wasting time with earning estimates given input time and skill level. This could include ride-hail platforms (Lyft, Uber), knowledge work platforms (Fiverr, Upwork), even Mechanical Turk.

Re: Do you know how much money would you make instead of sitting in Facebook/Reddit?

#25

Post by 7webpages »

tamalpais wrote: post #24

1. Instead of just looking at the opportunity cost also factor in the actual costs, e.g., Netflix requires a paid subscription in addition to time. 2. You could include affiliate links to services for earning money in free time as an alternative to wasting time with earning estimates given input time and skill level. This could include ride-hail platforms (Lyft, Uber), knowledge work platforms (Fiverr, Upwork), even…

That's a great idea! Thanks!

Re: Do you know how much money would you make instead of sitting in Facebook/Reddit?

#26

Post by forgotmypass9 »

I made a mobile game, and ended up with negative money from the experience. I spent a lot time I could have wasted on reddit/HN/Factorio. I'd rather a guide to ideas that could be profitable than a guide that only tells me to stops wasting time.

Re: Do you know how much money would you make instead of sitting in Facebook/Reddit?

#27

Post by 7webpages »

forgotmypass9 wrote: post #26

I made a mobile game, and ended up with negative money from the experience. I spent a lot time I could have wasted on reddit/HN/Factorio. I'd rather a guide to ideas that could be profitable than a guide that only tells me to stops wasting time.

Fair point. But I bet you have earned quite a good experience from building that app. And it was an idea that could be profitable. It's never 100% guaranty.

Re: Do you know how much money would you make instead of sitting in Facebook/Reddit?

#28

Post by 7webpages »

akman wrote: post #20

But time != energy + motivation. Also time != money. I realize it won't be as eye-catching, but showing time wasted rather than money is more direct and truthful. Then I suppose the problem is that apps like that already exist...

Agree, but time & money definitely correlate, so I think it's fine to have it as money for motivation.

Re: Do you know how much money would you make instead of sitting in Facebook/Reddit?

#30

Post by muzani »

ponsin wrote: post #11

I earn a monthly salary. That means that as long as I avoid getting fired I earn the same amount regardless of how much time I spend on Reddit/Facebook.

Well, there's also the nights you could spend driving Uber, working on mTurk, or writing mass produced erotica for someone on Upwork.
Post reply on HN