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How to earn a billion dollars

paulgraham.com

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Re: How to earn a billion dollars

#581

Post by oulipo2 »

rayiner wrote: post #549
blfr wrote: post #23

But the accounting difference is real. It is virtually impossible to earn a billion dollars. What is possible but still difficult is to create something worth a billion dollars which you can then sell if you choose so. And to the people criticizing, this is cheating. To them, a billion dollars enterprise is not possible without the exploitation of employees, customers, or at least the environment. Also, the most impo…

> And to the people criticizing, this is cheating. To them, a billion dollars enterprise is not possible without the exploitation of employees, customers, or at least the environment. Well that’s wrong. Exploitive businesses do exist. Rent seeking and arbitrage does exist. But the ire today isn’t directed to Wall Street or private equity. It’s being directed to people who built real companies. It’s not inherently exp…

Okay, now try applying your thinking to abusive healthcare insurance companies and see how well this fares...

Re: How to earn a billion dollars

#582

Post by pacija »

pj_mukh wrote: post #548
neilv wrote: 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…

Can't you crash on your sister's couch?

Re: How to earn a billion dollars

#583

Post by imgabe »

chipotle_coyote wrote: post #525
pipes wrote: post #509

The amount of negativity to this is depressing. No one seems to be contradicting anything he's saying here, instead it's just vacuous ideology "extraction" etc etc. Purposely narrow reading. I've got kids, I want people creating start ups they can work in, the alternative is too grim.

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…

Who is going to cap how much a company is allowed to be worth? Or how much of the company you start you are allowed to own? Why should anyone have the power to do that? That is a far more evil power than any billionaire has.

Re: How to earn a billion dollars

#584

Post by cindyllm »

DonsDiscountGas wrote: post #468
grim_io wrote: post #304

To me, earning something means deserving something. I don't think that the current system rewards those deserving the largest cuts of the pie. If you want to argue how to get a billion dollars, sure. But to me that is different than earning it.

Yes I'm sure that's what AOC meant too but it's not much of an explanation. Who are you to decide what people deserve or earn? And if you're going to decide that perhaps you'd like to provide a better justification, one that doesn't just boil down to "a billion is really really a lot of money".

[dead]

Re: How to earn a billion dollars

#585

Post by justonepost2 »

pipes wrote: post #509

The amount of negativity to this is depressing. No one seems to be contradicting anything he's saying here, instead it's just vacuous ideology "extraction" etc etc. Purposely narrow reading. I've got kids, I want people creating start ups they can work in, the alternative is too grim.

lol the next generation won’t be working in startups or anywhere else, all we have now is to hope and pray that we get a nice corner of the human zoo

Re: How to earn a billion dollars

#586

Post by noncoml »

neilv wrote: 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…

I am going to stand more on the “the key is not exploitation but empathy. What do users really want?“

I’m sorry Mr Graham, but that’s not what empathy is.

A casino understands what its “users” want. So does a drug dealer.

Empathy is caring about how your actions affect other people as well, and caring about those effects.

Let’s not encourage the dilution of the word empathy.

Re: How to earn a billion dollars

#587

Post by margorczynski »

pj_mukh wrote: post #548
neilv wrote: 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…

The Airbnb isn't just about the cost of homes but also the comfort of people living in them. Would you want to live under an Airbnb? With the constant rotation of people, parties, etc?

I know it might shock many but a lot of people (I would say most) buy a flat to live in it and making it into a pseudo-hotel lower the quality of life at the benefit of the airbnb owner.

Re: How to earn a billion dollars

#588

Post by WalterBright »

blfr wrote: post #23

But the accounting difference is real. It is virtually impossible to earn a billion dollars. What is possible but still difficult is to create something worth a billion dollars which you can then sell if you choose so. And to the people criticizing, this is cheating. To them, a billion dollars enterprise is not possible without the exploitation of employees, customers, or at least the environment. Also, the most impo…

Musk minted 4,000 millionaires last friday.

Re: How to earn a billion dollars

#589

Post by tehjoker »

Sure in some out even most cases growth starts in this nice way. There’s two problems though. In order to sustain that growth number, usually ever greater interventions become necessary. Second, there’s the marxist critique that while it’s true that owners add management decisions, it’s their employees that actually do most of the valuable work and are then underpaid relative to their contribution. If they were fully remunerated then there would be no profits. Third, while it is good to incentivize building things people want, it doesn’t make sense to reward people with class status that crushes everyone under them. It should get exponentially harder to make money like levels in a video game at best.

Re: How to earn a billion dollars

#590

Post by anubistheta »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #228
holistio wrote: post #87

I've been able to calculate logarithms for well over 20 years. That's not the problem. The problem is even simpler mathematics. Proportions. How much do we give to first employees? How realistic is that John Smith, first salesman of the company is getting 2% and should consider himself lucky, while I, Peter Boss retain most of the company? We always talk about the dilation of the founders' shares and its relation to…

Simply, neoliberal capitalism is sociopathy with quarterly returns. The assumptions are: 1. A uniquely special class of people do all the work that matters. They're astoundingly gifted, talented, and insightful, and have a rare ability to make profits happen by having very special ideas, owning Important Things, and telling everyone else what to do. These prodigies deserve everything. They are not to be criticised or…

That's not even close to accurate. Bitterness is blinding. Value is a social construct. Nothing stop people from valuing things differently. What liberalism is based on is the individual being free to make choices. So the value that someone contributes can't be determined by a third party. If someone voluntarily pays for X for your work, then that's what it is worth.
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