The simplest app that makes money • Hacker News Board

Re: The simplest app that makes money

#101

Post by JSavageOne » Sat, Dec 24, 2022, 3:55 AM UTC

chii wrote: post #26

ajkjk wrote: post #25

The weird subtext of this article is that it's an example of a certain kind of person, the type for whom the entire point of making things is to make money, and it's only by accident that it's about doing something useful. Here's a person who reads entrepreneurship books and takes notes on good ways to find business opportunities, makes an app to help people basically cheat because that's where the money is, naturall…

> the type for whom the entire point of making things is to make money, not do something useful. the fact that somebody is paying for said app implies that it is useful. Noone parts with money for an exchange that they don't find useful. The idea that just because _you_ don't see it as being useful doesn't make it not useful. If you suppose that the exchange ruins the world somehow, because there's some externality t…

> the fact that somebody is paying for said app implies that it is useful.

False. This is a tautology, aka circular reasoning.

For example purchasing and consuming heroin does not add value to anyone's life.

A lot of social media consumption (eg. TikTok) doesn't improve one's life, yet people consume them out of addiction.

Someone choosing to do something doesn't mean that it is valuable for them. Another counterpoint would be suicide.

Re: The simplest app that makes money

#102

Post by ajkjk » Sat, Dec 24, 2022, 7:58 AM UTC

adamckay wrote: post #99

ajkjk wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can, for example, manipulate people to pay for something. > How? What's the point of pretending like you can't answer that question yourself? It doesn't make your position seem stronger; quite the opposite.

It's a genuine question. How can you manipulate someone into spending money on something where they don't perceive any value from its usefulness? Through blackmail or coercion? There's no reasonable explanation where someone can be manipulated into spending money that they think is entirely wasteful from the outset. The sibling comment on marketing, whilst somewhat manipulative, is still a useful purchase -- I want t…

You can't think of anything? People manipulate people to spend money every day, literally all the time. Sales, ads, product descriptions, promotions... some of these things turn out to be useful, and worth the money, some aren't, or are worth less than expected at least, and you usually don't find out until after the fact. It is like the single most common human activity, convincing people to buy things.

Re: The simplest app that makes money

#103

Post by npteljes » Sat, Dec 24, 2022, 11:55 AM UTC

adamckay wrote: post #75

npteljes wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Noone parts with money for an exchange that they don't find useful. Come on, there's many. You can, for example, manipulate people to pay for something. You can get them addicted, so that they become repeat customers, despite rationality. You can lie to a lot of people, so that you will have one time customers, but you can do that to a large crowd. You can quasi-force people to buy something, if it's a prerequisite…

> You can, for example, manipulate people to pay for something. How? > You can get them addicted, so that they become repeat customers, despite rationality. No one purchases anything to become addicted. You may download a game, find it fun and purchase in-game items. It's useful because it's entertaining. > You can lie to a lot of people, so that you will have one time customers, but you can do that to a large crowd.…

>Manipulate, how?

Myriads of ways. For an example, consider a virtue signalling issue, greenwashing. Greenwashing is employing green marketing, without actually committing to green causes. By doing this, many choose the product, company or service to be more conscious of nature. But in the end, the promises are not kept, and the customer is already out of their money. So, manipulation for pay happened.

>No one purchases anything to become addicted.

Of course they don't, that's not what I meant, obviously. They get addicted in the meantime of consuming. I think a timely example is mobile games, as detailed in for example this article: https://www.nbcnews.com/better/lifestyle/why-mobile-games-ar...

>Then once purchased they'll find it was a waste.

Yes, but they are already out of money, and the recourse is not worth it, unavailable, or otherwise hindered. The result is that many don't return the product or react in any way - and that's how this business model works.

>So it's useful to gain access to something else?

If it needs to be made useful, it's not useful. It's like console exclusive games. It's not a natural thing, the software could probably be made to run in other environments easily, but they are artificially restricted, and they spin that as an advantage to the console. It's nonsense.

>No normal person willingly spends money that they know is a waste ahead of time.

Let's not muddy the argument with "normal person". First of all, these tactics are exactly targeted at the so-called normal people. Second, there's is nothing abnormal in belonging to any group of people that get taken advantage of, like young men getting roped into redpill, incel, PUA things. The dismissal of labeling these experiences as abnormal is part of what creates even more of this thing.

Re: The simplest app that makes money

#104

Post by rdtwo » Sat, Dec 24, 2022, 8:17 PM UTC

boberoni wrote: post #7

I have a bookmark to a personal Google Doc called “SaaS Business Ideas”, for whenever I think of a project that I think I can monetize. The Google Doc is actually view-only and says “Stop ideating about projects to make money! You probably don’t need the money. Just work on projects that you find fun.”

The worst part is if you make some tiny amount of money say 1-2k then end up in tax and compliance hell