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How to earn a billion dollars

paulgraham.com

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Re: How to earn a billion dollars

#41

Post by ahartmetz »

haritha-j wrote: post #9

I enjoyed this, but the thesis is misleading. Paul’s own examples here were Facebook, apple etc. I imagine that the politicians point was that beyond a certain point, you do have to be unethical to continue that growth rate. Facebook is notorious for doing plenty of this. Apple too is known for exploiting developers. If we extrapolate to trillionaires, we know for a fact that you need to be an all-around dousche that…

Yup. Billionaire - doable without too much ethical compromise (e.g early Google). The thing is that a billion isn't much per "first world" citizen if that is roughly your market. Many-many-billionaire - would need some good example, I can only think of bad ones. The SAP guys maybe? But they aren't exactly the richest. The only bad things I've heard about SAP are "making clunky software" and "charging too much money".

Re: How to earn a billion dollars

#42

Post by lostmsu »

cnees wrote: post #20

"It's impossible to earn a billion" means it's impossible to work hard enough to deserve to have a billion dollars in a world where so many people died for lack of money, not that it's impossible to get it without cheating.

How does it work with theoretical distant poor aliens and any amount of money?

Re: How to earn a billion dollars

#44

Post by readingnews »

The real problem is his example, "you start off with 2 million dollars and 95% growth rate".

Fine, show me the average person who can come up with 2 million dollars. I sure as hell can not. I even went to banks and founders with my ideas, cash flow sheets and customer list looking for a loan.

No, I am convinced, the rich already have 2 million dollars, and make themselves a billionaire. The system is rigged against "normal" people.

Re: How to earn a billion dollars

#45

Post by cnees »

cnees wrote: post #20

"It's impossible to earn a billion" means it's impossible to work hard enough to deserve to have a billion dollars in a world where so many people died for lack of money, not that it's impossible to get it without cheating.

Another solid interpretation is that nobody gets a billion in wages. You have to own something that appreciates, and it appreciates because of the people who work for you, and you take disproportionately much of the benefit.

Re: How to earn a billion dollars

#46

Post by zozbot234 »

echoangle wrote: post #28

Playing devils advocate here: Maybe the politicians position is that the whole system is based on cheating and everyone who partakes is acting immorally? Is it fair that the founder got education and some money to start his company while other people are living on the street or have to care for relatives? If they come from a relatively privileged position and manage to build a company that ends up being successful, d…

If the only viable alternative is that nobody gets to start their business rather than some idealized best case of everyone getting a chance of it, then yes, it's probably fair.

Re: How to earn a billion dollars

#47

Post by timr »

irishcoffee wrote: post #8
smallmancontrov wrote: post #3

In creative destruction, you can do an accounting sleight of hand by attributing credit for creation while ignoring blame for destruction even though the two are linked. This is a technology + investing forum and all of us agree that in general creative destruction processes are enormously net positive, but they frequently do kick off a toxic byproduct in the form of said destruction (e.g. Uber and displaced taxi dri…

I will say before Uber was a thing, if I tried to call and schedule a taxi pickup in the city I lived in at the time, if they showed up at all they were at east a half hour late. Missed a flight because of it once. I don’t even like uber, but it is objectively a better service most of the time.

Yeah, anyone who uses taxi drivers as an example of destruction either don't know what they're talking about (because they never experienced it) or they're crying crocodile tears.

I had cab drivers nearly drive off with me hanging off the car in San Francisco, because they were far more concerned with screening my destination than, say, not killing me. If Uber destroyed that industry, it was only a net benefit to society. They created immense value, and the "destruction" was only to eliminate a layer of corrupt parasites who made money by preventing a free market (in this case, the medallion owners, but the entire industry was corrupt from top to bottom).

Re: How to earn a billion dollars

#48

Post by douglee650 »

(underscores to visually identify mag)

--

// 8bn world population / 3,500 billionaires:

0.000000_44

--

// 300mm US population / 1,000 billionaires

0.00000_333

--

// Odds of winning billion dollar powerball

0.00000000_3422298 (play once)

0.0000000_68446 (play twenty times)

0.000000_34223 (play 100 times)

--

// Global net worth vs billionaires

0.03636364

--

// US net worth vs billionaires

0.0942029

Re: How to earn a billion dollars

#49

Post by ahartmetz »

Findeton wrote: post #29
tsimionescu wrote: post #5

So nice of pg to mention AirBnB as one of his examples of what a successful startup who "doesn't cheat" means. They just were great people with a great idea who found a market for something people wanted that no one had thought about before, and poof, exponential math billionaires who earned it! Of course, we'll ignore the huge issues that Airbnb created for cities, customers, and providers. We'll ignore the way they…

No, that problem was not generated by Airbnb. There’s growing demand and, because of regulation, not enough is built every year. For example, according to INE, 250k new families are formed in Spain (more than 500k people) and only 100k new houses/flats are built and the yearly deficit has been accumulating for 12 years. That is the real issue and blaming corporations is just the politicians’ easy path to deflect blam…

You can exacerbate a problem (which Airbnb is doing) without being its major cause. Doing that is still bad.

Re: How to earn a billion dollars

#50

Post by zozbot234 »

readingnews wrote: post #44

The real problem is his example, "you start off with 2 million dollars and 95% growth rate". Fine, show me the average person who can come up with 2 million dollars. I sure as hell can not. I even went to banks and founders with my ideas, cash flow sheets and customer list looking for a loan. No, I am convinced, the rich already have 2 million dollars, and make themselves a billionaire. The system is rigged against "…

One in 500 of them makes themselves a billionaire, the rest have thrown two million dollars down the toilet. It's just a fair bet, there's nothing "rigged" about it.
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