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How to earn a billion dollars

paulgraham.com

551–560 of 1001 posts

Re: How to earn a billion dollars

#551
post #541

> There are other ways to get rich than by starting startups. Some of those do require you to exploit people. But startups are the most common way to become really rich, and if you want to start a successful startup, the key is not exploitation but empathy. What do users really want? To have illegal hotels that then help keep a generation out of home ownership? To have an exchange for cryptographic tokens that are us…

There are plenty of honest millionaires, but no honest billionaires.

Re: How to earn a billion dollars

#552
post #541

> There are other ways to get rich than by starting startups. Some of those do require you to exploit people. But startups are the most common way to become really rich, and if you want to start a successful startup, the key is not exploitation but empathy. What do users really want? To have illegal hotels that then help keep a generation out of home ownership? To have an exchange for cryptographic tokens that are us…

"To have illegal hotels that then help keep a generation out of home ownership?" To solve this, New York City (basically) banned Airbnb's and home ownership is now famously more accessible in the City? I am not even asking for home ownership + rentals to be solved, I am asking whether it got even slightly better because of this ban? Meanwhile, I can't visit my sister because the regulation cartel..I mean Hotel Lobby…

When you put oil on fire, it will suddenly stop burning as soon as you stop putting new oil on it.

The housing crisis has multiple causes, regulatory framework which benefits existing homeowners is one of them, capitalists treating houses like the stock market is another, and Laissez Faire hotel market did only make it worse (like a gasoline on a burning fire). Now that the thing that made a bad thing worse has been banned, that does not mean the damage it caused has been fixed, nor does it mean that the other causes have been resolved either.

Re: How to earn a billion dollars

#553

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if -- bear with me here -- it's possible for bright, motivated founders to create startups that your kids can work in, but those founders could be content with merely making a hundred million dollars? Because, and I don't know if you know this so you may have to take it on faith, that is still so much money that said founder and their family and very likely their descendants can live in extreme luxury for the re…

> But those founders be content with merely making a hundred million? What does this mean? Without some insane wealth tax this is literally impossible. No founder chooses to become a billionaire. They just keep growing a business that is solving a billion dollar problem. The only other was is if after 100M they start turning down customers or restricting services.

This is conflating businesses that solve billion dollar problems with people who individually contribute so much to a business that they solved the billion dollar problem all on their own. The latter is probably possible, but it's not necessarily the case that all billionaires and up today were such individuals.

It might be that if personal wealth alone were (effectively, by taxation) capped to $100m, we would still have exactly as much collective wealth, innovation, and value creation as we do today. Possibly more, because of more wealth distributed onto shared infrastructure and into the fluid economy.

Re: How to earn a billion dollars

#554
post #541

> There are other ways to get rich than by starting startups. Some of those do require you to exploit people. But startups are the most common way to become really rich, and if you want to start a successful startup, the key is not exploitation but empathy. What do users really want? To have illegal hotels that then help keep a generation out of home ownership? To have an exchange for cryptographic tokens that are us…

"To have illegal hotels that then help keep a generation out of home ownership?" To solve this, New York City (basically) banned Airbnb's and home ownership is now famously more accessible in the City? I am not even asking for home ownership + rentals to be solved, I am asking whether it got even slightly better because of this ban? Meanwhile, I can't visit my sister because the regulation cartel..I mean Hotel Lobby…

Fuck Airbnb. Half my old neighborhood is short term rentals, lame af.

It is well studied that many startups succeed by intentionally operating in gray areas or otherwise flouting rules/norms.

Re: How to earn a billion dollars

#555
post #541

> There are other ways to get rich than by starting startups. Some of those do require you to exploit people. But startups are the most common way to become really rich, and if you want to start a successful startup, the key is not exploitation but empathy. What do users really want? To have illegal hotels that then help keep a generation out of home ownership? To have an exchange for cryptographic tokens that are us…

"To have illegal hotels that then help keep a generation out of home ownership?" To solve this, New York City (basically) banned Airbnb's and home ownership is now famously more accessible in the City? I am not even asking for home ownership + rentals to be solved, I am asking whether it got even slightly better because of this ban? Meanwhile, I can't visit my sister because the regulation cartel..I mean Hotel Lobby…

>To solve this, New York City (basically) banned Airbnb's and home ownership is now famously more accessible in the City?

I don't know about home ownership - but not having random strangers in the building at random hours of the day/night is a definite improvement.

>the regulation cartel..I mean Hotel Lobby has spiked pricing

Does supply/demand pricing not apply to hotel rooms?

Re: How to earn a billion dollars

#556
post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His entire essay is just based on a purposeful misreading of the opposing point. It's a straw man. And if you look at his history it's obviously intentional and part of his usual style of argument. The actual opposing argument is that it's impossible to create a billion dollar enterprise without a group effort, and for one person to end up with a billion dollars necessarily means that they made decisions within that…

> it's impossible to create a billion dollar enterprise without a group effort George Lucas made a movie with a (small) group effort. But what made a billion dollars is his Star Wars universe which is almost entirely his creation. It literally creates wealth for other people. If my toy sells $10,000 without Star Wars and $100,000 with it, did I participate in making George’s billion, or am I benefiting from it? > mea…

> What do you mean? Every good and service involves many people, but

Well yes. That is in fact exactly what I mean.

Re: How to earn a billion dollars

#558

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if -- bear with me here -- it's possible for bright, motivated founders to create startups that your kids can work in, but those founders could be content with merely making a hundred million dollars? Because, and I don't know if you know this so you may have to take it on faith, that is still so much money that said founder and their family and very likely their descendants can live in extreme luxury for the re…

> But those founders be content with merely making a hundred million? What does this mean? Without some insane wealth tax this is literally impossible. No founder chooses to become a billionaire. They just keep growing a business that is solving a billion dollar problem. The only other was is if after 100M they start turning down customers or restricting services.

They can continue growing the business while giving other employees a larger share of the asset. One person doesn’t create a billion dollar company, dozens or thousands do. After founding, other people who don’t become billionaires work similarly hard and are similarly smart as the founder. This is why people dispute “earning” a billion dollars.

Re: How to earn a billion dollars

#559
post #541

> There are other ways to get rich than by starting startups. Some of those do require you to exploit people. But startups are the most common way to become really rich, and if you want to start a successful startup, the key is not exploitation but empathy. What do users really want? To have illegal hotels that then help keep a generation out of home ownership? To have an exchange for cryptographic tokens that are us…

There are plenty of honest millionaires, but no honest billionaires.

naaa... not really. they forget really quickly where they come from. Money corrupts everyone, no difference if you have a few million or a few billion.
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