Six Figures in 6 days • Hacker News Board

Re: Six Figures in 6 days

#191

Post by bityard » Wed, Sep 30, 2020, 6:06 PM UTC

bmh100 wrote: post #185

tengbretson wrote: post #175

Of course I check the comments here and theres the usual chorus of dismissals as "just luck." It's funny because anyone who actually believed that would never have created those icons 7 years ago. They would have never published them and they would have never stuck their neck out to promote them. In a way it seems like the best way to ensure that you never "get lucky" is to assume that it's all just luck in the first…

The problem is that the article does not describe a repeatable process. Maybe the author's experience is repeatable, but that is not part of the content. The most critical component was the marketing, i.e. "going viral" on Twitter. Some marketing firms specialize in doing so and seem to have skill, yet I see no indication of where the author intentionally took steps to achieve that effect. Therefore, yes, it does see…

Is that a problem, though? A major component of success is in fact luck. Doing the right thing at just the right time, with enough prior planning and skill to be able to follow through if it takes off. If making a bunch of money somehow with few hurdles was reliably repeatable, everyone would start doing it. Until the market is saturated and then it stops being repeatable.

First mover advantage ties into this here, as does discussions on the free market, and other interesting economic theory.

Re: Six Figures in 6 days

#192

Post by IkmoIkmo » Wed, Sep 30, 2020, 6:06 PM UTC

kyran_adept wrote: post #7

As an Android user, I am completely blown away by two things: #1 iPhones got this only in 2020, when Android had this since the first version, #2 iPhone owners are willing to spend $28 for a icon pack, a very nice one, but still an icon pack.

Not even that but, you can't change icons. What you can do is create a siri shortcut, assign an icon to that, and make the shortcut just open an app. Everytime you click it, it'll load siri, then siri loads the app, visibly and with a delay.

It's painful to use and look at, all of which was described in the video, and people paid $28 for it. Pretty insane.

Re: Six Figures in 6 days

#193

Post by shmageggy » Wed, Sep 30, 2020, 6:06 PM UTC

bmh100 wrote: post #185

tengbretson wrote: post #175

Of course I check the comments here and theres the usual chorus of dismissals as "just luck." It's funny because anyone who actually believed that would never have created those icons 7 years ago. They would have never published them and they would have never stuck their neck out to promote them. In a way it seems like the best way to ensure that you never "get lucky" is to assume that it's all just luck in the first…

The problem is that the article does not describe a repeatable process. Maybe the author's experience is repeatable, but that is not part of the content. The most critical component was the marketing, i.e. "going viral" on Twitter. Some marketing firms specialize in doing so and seem to have skill, yet I see no indication of where the author intentionally took steps to achieve that effect. Therefore, yes, it does see…

It may not be a perfectly repeatable recipe (that doesn't exist), but there's solid, actionable advice here. Particularly "act immediately". Things only go viral when the moment is right, and that moment is usually very fleeing.

One supporting data point: back when the game 2048 went viral I happened to be on a break with nothing to do, so I coded up an AI for it in one night [1]. The next day it blew up on Twitter and elsewhere. There have since been many other, better AIs, but since mine was first and came out when the game was on everyone's mind, it was the only one that got so much attention.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7379821

Re: Six Figures in 6 days

#194

Post by soperj » Wed, Sep 30, 2020, 6:10 PM UTC

jschwartzi wrote: post #159

bdcravens wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other than the derisive "sheeple" response, why do people stick with iPhones when Androids have more desirable features?

My 4 year old Apple phone continues to work great, while every Android phone I've used would get progressively slower and less capable with each Android update. Also there was a plethora of Android features to support local advertising that I considered very invasive of my privacy. One example was an ad campaign for a children's clothing store called "Charming Charlie" which would pop up on my phone whenever I walked…

I'm still using a Galaxy S3 with no problems. YMMV.

Re: Six Figures in 6 days

#195

Post by wesleywt » Wed, Sep 30, 2020, 6:12 PM UTC

bmh100 wrote: post #185

tengbretson wrote: post #175

Of course I check the comments here and theres the usual chorus of dismissals as "just luck." It's funny because anyone who actually believed that would never have created those icons 7 years ago. They would have never published them and they would have never stuck their neck out to promote them. In a way it seems like the best way to ensure that you never "get lucky" is to assume that it's all just luck in the first…

The problem is that the article does not describe a repeatable process. Maybe the author's experience is repeatable, but that is not part of the content. The most critical component was the marketing, i.e. "going viral" on Twitter. Some marketing firms specialize in doing so and seem to have skill, yet I see no indication of where the author intentionally took steps to achieve that effect. Therefore, yes, it does see…

"The harder I practice, the luckier I get' - Gary Player, a legendary South African golfer.

Re: Six Figures in 6 days

#196

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Sep 30, 2020, 6:12 PM UTC

fartcannon wrote: post #167

elboru wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is anecdotal of course. But I was an Android user since the first Galaxy S until the Galaxy S7 (with Nexus and some others in between). I don’t know if this is still the case but every single time I had one of the big updates my phone just started getting slower and slower, most of my phones got a crack in the screen, battery started draining really quickly. I couldn’t spend more than 1.5 years with the same pho…

Apple was literally fined for slowing down older phones: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-51413724 If you want your phone to last forever, you need to take control of it yourself. Get a Lineage OS compatible phone and ditch the play store. Not only will it be faster, the battery life will quadruple.

[deleted]

Re: Six Figures in 6 days

#197

Post by raobit » Wed, Sep 30, 2020, 6:13 PM UTC

animal_spirits wrote: post #177

dralley wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is basically the origin of the saying "you create your own luck". Luck is absolutely, 100% a factor here, but you won't get lucky without putting the effort in first.

Opportunity is where preparation meets luck

Exactly luck can connect to a certain point but if efforts are not there, its no use

Re: Six Figures in 6 days

#198

Post by luord » Wed, Sep 30, 2020, 6:15 PM UTC

> Try many things once to figure out what you want to do twice.

For some reason, that was the line that stuck with me the most.

Now, the only real skill I have is in software development, but fortunately there are a lot of things to try in software development, so I can give that suggestion a try run.

Re: Six Figures in 6 days

#199

Post by Miraste » Wed, Sep 30, 2020, 6:19 PM UTC

heavyset_go wrote: post #158

hnlmorg wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The idea that people would pay money, do a bunch of extra work and make their device slower just to change the appearance of their home screen because a handful of people on social media popularize it blows my mind. I'm surprised you find that surprising because customisation isn't exactly a new phenomenon. I mean is it really any different to techies slapping stickers on their laptop? Or car enthusiasts modding th…

> I'm surprised you find that surprising because customisation isn't exactly a new phenomenon An entire generation of developers is growing up being told that users like being told how to use their devices, and that options scare them.

Devil's advocate: this is true. The people buying this icon pack, and the people who spend time on software customization in general, are a negligible subset of iPhone users. If you're making an app that aims for the lowest common denominator, options should be a low priority and well hidden once they're added.

If you're targeting a segment that likes options it's a different story.

Re: Six Figures in 6 days

#200

Post by heavyset_go » Wed, Sep 30, 2020, 6:29 PM UTC

Miraste wrote: post #199

heavyset_go wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm surprised you find that surprising because customisation isn't exactly a new phenomenon An entire generation of developers is growing up being told that users like being told how to use their devices, and that options scare them.

Devil's advocate: this is true. The people buying this icon pack, and the people who spend time on software customization in general, are a negligible subset of iPhone users. If you're making an app that aims for the lowest common denominator, options should be a low priority and well hidden once they're added. If you're targeting a segment that likes options it's a different story.

I think this opinion is similar to the opinion that people don't value their privacy: it is a very convenient viewpoint to have when it comes to a company's bottom line.

Sure, if you approach the average person about an obscure topic like their privacy on the internet, they probably don't have strong opinions about it because that is outside of their wheelhouse, and they probably haven't given it much thought. If you couch privacy in terms that they are familiar with, such as drawing parallels to Supreme Court cases regarding surveillance and privacy, suddenly they care about whether or not they're being stalked online by corporations and governments.

For example, right to repair is something that most people don't think about. However, if you press the average person about whether they think they have the right to repair their own vehicle, suddenly everyone has strong opinions about it. People assume they have the right to use their hardware as they see fit, and aren't afraid of such options.