Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I Just Hit $100k/year On GitHub Sponsors

calebporzio.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

311–320 of 510 posts

Re: I Just Hit $100k/year On GitHub Sponsors

#311

Post by gardaani »

Ndymium wrote: post #132

Reading these makes me sad about the law in my country, Finland. The lowest tier of OP ($7 for no reward) would be illegal here. We have a law called "Money Collection act", which states that to gather donations (i.e. payments with nothing in return), you have to get a permit. This permit costs money, is not given to individuals, and is given only for non-profit activities. So this means that if you see a donation/sp…

In Finland, a new law was made to allow small-scale money collection up to EUR 10000, but it has also other restrictions, so it may not help you: https://intermin.fi/en/police/fundraising

Re: I Just Hit $100k/year On GitHub Sponsors

#312

Post by calebporzio »

sorentwo wrote: post #263
sytelus wrote: post #249

I hate sponsorware concept OP is proposing. It seems to work for him but it’s opposite to the spirit of open source. His idea is that keep code secret until you find N sponsors. Further, he will hide important tutorials if you are not sponsor. I would hate to use this kind of open source project. Here is more viable freelancing: - create framework/library that everyone needs - for feature requests/bug fixes, prioriti…

What you're proposing requires him to sell his time instead of his work (which was already a portion of his time). It is impossible to scale that type of consulting work to multiple clients because you'll always be limited by your available time. The spirit of open source isn't so sacred. In most cases it is hundreds or thousands of businesses benefiting financially from the work you've done.

This exactly

Re: I Just Hit $100k/year On GitHub Sponsors

#313

Post by calebporzio »

calebporzio wrote: post #312
sorentwo wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you're proposing requires him to sell his time instead of his work (which was already a portion of his time). It is impossible to scale that type of consulting work to multiple clients because you'll always be limited by your available time. The spirit of open source isn't so sacred. In most cases it is hundreds or thousands of businesses benefiting financially from the work you've done.

This exactly

I started the journey out (sorta) this way. It's a hard life.

Re: I Just Hit $100k/year On GitHub Sponsors

#314

Post by balls187 »

avgDev wrote: post #289
jermaustin1 wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you set the entity up correctly and work with a decent accountant, your $112k turns into more like $40k taxable, and if you are married, that $40k drops to $20k @ 10% + $20k @ 12% or ~ $4500 in taxes.

This. In US there are many benefits of owning a business. Cars are an expense, home office is an expense, etc. When you work for someone else you don't have this flexibility but your risk is lower and you are not worried about finding clients.

Its difficult to deduct cars as an expense--that is one of many expenses that the IRS will scrutinize.

The broader point still remains, for a business (a 1099 is considered a sole-proprietorship) generally net income is taxed, and as a W2, your taxes are witheld per pay period.

Re: I Just Hit $100k/year On GitHub Sponsors

#315

Post by balls187 »

bufferoverflow wrote: post #242
viklove wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Comparing working as a W2 employee doesn't really compare to working as a contractor. Getting to choose your own hours, the direction of your project, who you get to work with, etc. is far more valuable to me than a bit more money.

I worked as a contractor in 1099 for years. It was exactly the same as W2, except I had to pay estimated taxes 4 times a year. I didn't get to choose hours, direction, who to work with. I think you're confusing it with personal projects.

> I didn't get to choose hours, direction, who to work with.

There is nuance in that statement. The IRS has a test for whether a person is an employee or a contractor.

https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/understanding-employee-vs-contr...

Re: I Just Hit $100k/year On GitHub Sponsors

#316

Post by thebluehawk »

koheripbal wrote: post #252
StevenRayOrr wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Success is more random than we'd like to believe, and there is a risk when failure leads to victim blaming. An excellent sentiment, if less common these days than it should be. Reminds me of a quotation from Chapter XXV[0] of Machiavelli's The Prince : "Nevertheless, not to extinguish our free will, I hold it to be true that Fortune is the arbiter of one-half of our actions, but that she still leaves us to direct t…

Over the course of an entire lifetime, the random good vs bad luck tend to wash out and people usually end their lives financially roughly in line with their capabilities. - my personal opinion and experience.

I would agree, with the caveat of "all else being equal". There is a danger in ignoring vast socioeconomic divides that can put people at a disadvantage that can make things more difficult for certain demographics.

Re: I Just Hit $100k/year On GitHub Sponsors

#317

Post by Bjartr »

k33n wrote: post #181
rocgf wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really incredible how much the hatred for 'socialism' goes in certain circles.

Even more incredible are the lengths certain types of folks will go to defend these policies even when faced with very real examples of the negative consequences of ceding liberty in return for the state to "take care of you".

It's almost like different people have different ideas of what are acceptable negatives to trade-off for various positive benefits.

Re: I Just Hit $100k/year On GitHub Sponsors

#318

Post by Bjartr »

qazpot wrote: post #180
rocgf wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really incredible how much the hatred for 'socialism' goes in certain circles.

I am not hating on socialism. It has it's merits like providing healthcare if properly implemented but having excessive permits and licence is one of the facets of socialism. Socialism is not the perfect system.

Would you mind describing why permitting & licensing are so linked with socialist policies?

Re: I Just Hit $100k/year On GitHub Sponsors

#319

Post by RyanGoosling »

komali2 wrote: post #147
hoorayimhelping wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> $100k is still not even close to how much you can make in SV as an engineer Oh, well then fuck this idiot, right? What a dumbass loser - doesn't even realize they can be a s i l i c o n v a l l e y e n g i n e e r and make a lot of money. Jesus it's so exhausting reading the knee-jerk "SV engineers make more money" reaction to everything. You know what this person has that 99.999% of all SV engineers will never hav…

> The option not to have live in San Francisco, a dismal place that very few people want to actually be in anymore. Dismal? Lol I love it here. People are moving out of cities all over the country because of coronavirus, sure, but only because most of the perks of city living are non-existent right now. I know a couple people moving and they're not going far, because of the nearby available amenities, that being exce…

Smell the streets at 3am

Re: I Just Hit $100k/year On GitHub Sponsors

#320

Post by hinkley »

kemitchell wrote: post #298

The more individual developer stories I look into on Sponsors or Patreon or wherever, the more I see a recurring pattern. The vast majority of developers don't make any significant money. The outliers that do use the platform as a general-purpose payment processor. They take donations, but they also sell things. The line between isn't terribly clear. The platforms help style all the payments as "donations" or "sponso…

In class and race struggles it's not uncommon to see someone worry aloud about token individuals who are "allowed" to succeed out of proportion to their peers. It gives the rabble hope, which keeps them sedate. But the success rate barely exceeds attrition at the top of the pyramid.

I don't think I personally will ever know if this is just an accident of the system (being happily exploited), planned, or a little bit from column A and a little bit from column B.

Enough notable success stories satisfies the Availability heuristic in your brain, but that often tricks you into thinking things are quite different than they actually are.

Post reply on HN