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

"How to Get Rich": an anti-self-help book by Felix Dennis

didigetthingsdone.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 64 posts

Re: "How to Get Rich": an anti-self-help book by Felix Dennis

#41

Post by logjam »

maxklein wrote: post #33
icey wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Respectfully, that's advice on how to not be poor before it's advice on how to get rich. To be rich, you have to consider the way you make your money. Getting paid lots of money per hour is not going to make you rich on your own 99 times out of 100 (the other time being those people who make $1000 an hour or something), because as soon as you stop working, that income stream is gone. You can only also work so many ho…

You don't understand how to get rich then. Let me give you an example. I work and make $1000, and spend $700. This leaves me $300 extra. I work another month and the same thing happens. Now I have $600 extra. I take this $600 of extra money, and I purchase 300 shoes in china, and sell them for $3 a piece. I now have $1800 in extra cash. I work another month, and I have $2100 extra (in 3 months). I take the $2100 and…

You mean your way of becoming rich means exploiting the 3rd world, and recent immigrants?

Might there be more ethical ways?

Re: "How to Get Rich": an anti-self-help book by Felix Dennis

#42

Post by maxklein »

logjam wrote: post #41
maxklein wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't understand how to get rich then. Let me give you an example. I work and make $1000, and spend $700. This leaves me $300 extra. I work another month and the same thing happens. Now I have $600 extra. I take this $600 of extra money, and I purchase 300 shoes in china, and sell them for $3 a piece. I now have $1800 in extra cash. I work another month, and I have $2100 extra (in 3 months). I take the $2100 and…

You mean your way of becoming rich means exploiting the 3rd world, and recent immigrants? Might there be more ethical ways?

You can do the same exact thing, but with software. I just decided to use a real world example to demonstrate how one can do it when one has little to no skill. Using software it's WAY easier, but it's the EXACT same principle.

Re: "How to Get Rich": an anti-self-help book by Felix Dennis

#43

Post by mattmaroon »

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #39
mattmaroon wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are two basic problems with people who give you advice based on their own experience. 1) It may have been correct for them to do whatever they are advising you to do, but incorrect for you to do it. 2) It may have been incorrect for them to do whatever they are advising you to do, but they did so many other things correctly (including, but not limited to, being in the right place at the right time) that they su…

Wise words. I used to read and listen to a LOT of self-help/business development material. I found at least a 10-1 noise-to-signal ratio as far as material I thought had relevance to me. Then, I winnows out all of that stuff, I came to realize that each author can only give you their best shot at explaining how it worked for them in their situation. Simply because they think they know how to make it: that doesn't mak…

I don't think it's bad to read self-help books at all. It's just bad to take blanket generalizations as gospel.

His advice, in particular, that you should never give up equity seems the sort that he succeeded in spite of.

Re: "How to Get Rich": an anti-self-help book by Felix Dennis

#44

Post by eru »

logjam wrote: post #41
maxklein wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't understand how to get rich then. Let me give you an example. I work and make $1000, and spend $700. This leaves me $300 extra. I work another month and the same thing happens. Now I have $600 extra. I take this $600 of extra money, and I purchase 300 shoes in china, and sell them for $3 a piece. I now have $1800 in extra cash. I work another month, and I have $2100 extra (in 3 months). I take the $2100 and…

You mean your way of becoming rich means exploiting the 3rd world, and recent immigrants? Might there be more ethical ways?

Trade is exploitation?

Re: "How to Get Rich": an anti-self-help book by Felix Dennis

#45

Post by DanielBMarkham »

mattmaroon wrote: post #43
DanielBMarkham wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wise words. I used to read and listen to a LOT of self-help/business development material. I found at least a 10-1 noise-to-signal ratio as far as material I thought had relevance to me. Then, I winnows out all of that stuff, I came to realize that each author can only give you their best shot at explaining how it worked for them in their situation. Simply because they think they know how to make it: that doesn't mak…

I don't think it's bad to read self-help books at all. It's just bad to take blanket generalizations as gospel. His advice, in particular, that you should never give up equity seems the sort that he succeeded in spite of.

I don't either. That's why I said I was buying this one.

It's just a crap shoot, that's all.

Re: "How to Get Rich": an anti-self-help book by Felix Dennis

#47

Post by ivankirigin »

maxklein wrote: post #31

I can tell you how to get rich. Make more money than you spend. Think of ways to increase the amount of money coming in by investing the left-over money. It accumulates. My new startup is going to help you do that (FIRST HINT :))

I'm not sure if this is related to your next project, but I think there is a market for personal outsourcing, and especially local outsourcing.

Getting people to plan events, organize your inbox, or run errands should be a lot easier.

Part of spending more time working on things that make you more money is spending less time on things that are valuable but take a long time.

This is pretty independent from software writing, where more work on engineering scales well. That's why such a tool would be good - a non software based methdod of scaling work.

Re: "How to Get Rich": an anti-self-help book by Felix Dennis

#48

Post by logjam »

maxklein wrote: post #42
logjam wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean your way of becoming rich means exploiting the 3rd world, and recent immigrants? Might there be more ethical ways?

You can do the same exact thing, but with software. I just decided to use a real world example to demonstrate how one can do it when one has little to no skill. Using software it's WAY easier, but it's the EXACT same principle.

I strongly disagree. You talked about selling potentially LIFESAVING medical equipment for twice what you bought them for in the 3rd world, an area that cries out for CHEAP medical care.

Perhaps you have some other examples in mind. I stand by my questioning of why your examples appear to involve taking advantage of people who are probably in need of assistance.

And yes, trade is definitely often unethical. One of the main reasons the U.S. is rotting is because of unscrupulous business practices.

Re: "How to Get Rich": an anti-self-help book by Felix Dennis

#50

Post by DanielBMarkham »

logjam wrote: post #48
maxklein wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can do the same exact thing, but with software. I just decided to use a real world example to demonstrate how one can do it when one has little to no skill. Using software it's WAY easier, but it's the EXACT same principle.

I strongly disagree. You talked about selling potentially LIFESAVING medical equipment for twice what you bought them for in the 3rd world, an area that cries out for CHEAP medical care. Perhaps you have some other examples in mind. I stand by my questioning of why your examples appear to involve taking advantage of people who are probably in need of assistance. And yes, trade is definitely often unethical. One of th…

First, we're rotting? How so? Seem to be doing pretty good from where I sit, almost 30% of the world's GDP and all.

Second, it seems you know just what the appropriate ethical markup for medical equipment is. Care to share it with the rest of us? Is like 10% okay enough but if you mark it up 20% you've crossed some kind of numerical moral line? I've never heard such malarky, but I'm open-minded. Maybe there's some fancy formula for how free trade is supposed to work with life-saving equipment. Got one? Or are you just posturing?

I find some of these comments extremely fascinating.

Post reply on HN