If you had 5 dollars and 2 hours, how would you make as much money as possible? • Hacker News Board

Re: If you had 5 dollars and 2 hours, how would you make as much money as possible?

#11

Post by buymorechuck » Fri, Oct 30, 2009, 3:41 PM UTC

My iPhone app, EasyPlay, a gesture-based iPod controller, is on sale for $0.99. Or, if you like natural language processing, check out iRhyme, my iPhone NLP rhyming dictionary.

EasyPlay: http://itunes.com/app/easyplay

iRhyme: http://itunes.com/app/irhyme

My main point is that for 5 minutes time spent, a revenue stream is opened up; an efficient conversion of units of work time to revenue potential. (given I've already invested several months in these apps). The only risk was having this entry be downvoted for self-promoting on HN, since the rank is now at -4 points.

I'll report how successful this experiment was tomorrow.

Re: If you had 5 dollars and 2 hours, how would you make as much money as possible?

#12

Post by petercooper » Fri, Oct 30, 2009, 3:41 PM UTC

If you're not thinking of watching the video, think again. Even if you watch just the last two minutes. There's a good twist in the tail in the way the most successful team made the most money :-)

Re: If you had 5 dollars and 2 hours, how would you make as much money as possible?

#13

Post by timf » Fri, Oct 30, 2009, 3:45 PM UTC

jrp wrote: post #9

timf wrote: post #5

Since it's a video, I will risk ruining the 'surprise' for you since it's hard to scan a video. She says the most successful teams didn't really use the $5 because it was a limitation, they broke out of the standard "framing" of the problem.

So, the 2 hours is more important than the 5 dollars? I did get caught by the framing, but in retrospect I should have been tipped off by the fact that most wages are > 2.50/hr.

Yeah the 2 hours plus their "skills and creativity." One of the examples she liked the best was a team that sold their class presentation slot to a company that wanted to pitch to business students.

Re: If you had 5 dollars and 2 hours, how would you make as much money as possible?

#14

Post by stuartjmoore » Fri, Oct 30, 2009, 3:49 PM UTC

Buy a box of Cokes, sell them individually outside the movie theatre, repeat. Run when the management finds out.

I used to do this with Blow-Pops in middle school. You could buy a huge bag for about $1.50, and sell each one for 25¢. Great profit margin.

Re: If you had 5 dollars and 2 hours, how would you make as much money as possible?

#15

Post by igorgue » Fri, Oct 30, 2009, 3:52 PM UTC

petercooper wrote: post #12

If you're not thinking of watching the video, think again. Even if you watch just the last two minutes. There's a good twist in the tail in the way the most successful team made the most money :-)

yes it was awesome!, I bet the students felt used by the winning team :), but in a very good way. It was a great idea.

Re: If you had 5 dollars and 2 hours, how would you make as much money as possible?

#16

Post by jodrellblank » Fri, Oct 30, 2009, 3:53 PM UTC

odvious wrote: post #3

Get as far as you can on $5 of gas and drive to friends and family's houses running msconfig and cleaning up crapware to make their computer run faster. Easily $20 - $40 a pop. Protip: reinvest a little profit into more gas, make even more money!

I'd be surprised if you could thoroughly do one in three hours.

Re: If you had 5 dollars and 2 hours, how would you make as much money as possible?

#17

Post by mrduncan » Fri, Oct 30, 2009, 3:57 PM UTC

Here is a link to the original Stanford podcast where this video is from: http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2219

I really recommend the whole series also, they have had some excellent guests. http://ecorner.stanford.edu/podcasts.html

Edit: Grammar

Re: If you had 5 dollars and 2 hours, how would you make as much money as possible?

#18

Post by edw519 » Fri, Oct 30, 2009, 3:58 PM UTC

Just a few options off the top of my head:

1. Email everyone I've done work for in the past 5 years, promising all of my time on Mondays for the next year to the highest bidder by 2:00 p.m.

2. Same as #1, but instead of the highest bid, the first $10,000.

3. Same as #2, but $1,000. I will accept all checks received in the next 2 hours. What they will get: free use of my next web service for life.

4. Tell my employer that unless he cuts me a bonus check for $10,000 in the next 2 hours, I quit.

5. Write a one page book, "How I Lost 50 Pounds in 9 Months." Make as many photocopies as possible. Put on a pair of pants twice my size and sell the one page books for a buck a piece in front of McDonald's or the food court at lunch time. (I weigh 150 pounds.)

In all 5 cases, I leverage assets (goodwill & good health) I've already earned in much more than 2 hours.

The $5? For the lunch I eat while my "assets" (hopefully) earn.

Re: If you had 5 dollars and 2 hours, how would you make as much money as possible?

#19

Post by giblets » Fri, Oct 30, 2009, 3:59 PM UTC

Teacher: "And the TEAM that made the absolute most MONEY challenged absolutely every assumption and managed to make $5000 in the two hours."

Student: "How?"

Teacher: "Prostitution."

Student: "Who was in second place?"

Teacher: "The team that robbed a convince store."

Re: If you had 5 dollars and 2 hours, how would you make as much money as possible?

#20

Post by Oompa » Fri, Oct 30, 2009, 4:05 PM UTC

timf wrote: post #13

jrp wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, the 2 hours is more important than the 5 dollars? I did get caught by the framing, but in retrospect I should have been tipped off by the fact that most wages are > 2.50/hr.

Yeah the 2 hours plus their "skills and creativity." One of the examples she liked the best was a team that sold their class presentation slot to a company that wanted to pitch to business students.

Not just the one she liked the best, the one that made the most money. Company paid $650 to give a 3 minute pitch to the students.