I Just Hit $100k/year On GitHub Sponsors • Hacker News Board

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

#321

Post by stefanfisk » Tue, Jun 23, 2020, 7:28 PM UTC

parliament32 wrote: post #302

Erlich_Bachman wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, if you sell things (or electronic things), in any meaningful amount (no one will care for 200$ per year though), you have to set up a company or a sole proprietorship. It is like this in most western countries. The activity that you are doing in that case is called business, and of course you need to have a company or a similar business structure (like sole proprietorship) to do business. Whether all people do i…

>It is like this in most western countries. No it isn't... In Canada, you can happily accept money from people and just stick it in the "other income" box on your tax return, where it'll get income-taxed appropriately. If you're trying to do business deductions or want to pay business taxes instead, yes you need a business. If you're trying to set up a physical location, yes you need a business license from your city…

"It is like this in most western countries" can still apply even if Canada is an exception.

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

#322

Post by Bjartr » Tue, Jun 23, 2020, 7:29 PM UTC

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.

What is it about luck that ensures it averages out over the time-span of a human lifetime? Seems a little anthropocentric of a viewpoint to me.

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

#323

Post by toyg » Tue, Jun 23, 2020, 7:29 PM UTC

shafyy wrote: post #259

toyg wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have more than a single child of school age, £90k in London is not that much. Two kids at a private school in Northern England will run you £30k, I imagine in London it will be a tad more.

I explitliy mentioned: for one person. Of course, if you want to raise a family with private schols and a big house in the middle of London, that won't work. But let's not twist my words here.

> I explitliy mentioned: for one person.

1950 called, they want their mononuclear family stereotypes back.

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

#324

Post by wins32767 » Tue, Jun 23, 2020, 7:29 PM UTC

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.

Cohorts that graduate into a recession earn less over the course of their lifetimes than cohorts that graduate into normal times. It can take a decade or more to catch back up to their earning potential, meanwhile those who graduated a year earlier or later able to earn compounding interest on their additional income.

I find it hard to believe that birth year is strongly correlated with capabilities.

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

#325

Post by stefanfisk » Tue, Jun 23, 2020, 7:30 PM UTC

londons_explore wrote: post #265

zrail wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Literally just buying an insurance policy is significantly less complicated and roughly the same cost, IME. Professional liability, errors and omissions, etc. cost me ~$1k a year when I was doing consulting for $1mm in coverage. My LLC taxed as an S-corp cost more than that just in tax prep services. A single member LLC provides some benefits but those benefits often require a lawyer to invoke (i.e. you're getting su…

Perhaps the US is different, but here in the UK, I reckon that 95% of software developers will never go to court in their lifetime, and the remaining ones that do will settle for small amounts (ie. Refunding the customer the cost of the contract). Multi-million pound judgements against individuals are pretty much unheard of...

As a freelancer in Sweden I can't even imagine how big I would have to fuck up for a customer to sue me for anything beyond what they had already paid me.

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

#326

Post by nagyf » Tue, Jun 23, 2020, 7:34 PM UTC

PascLeRasc wrote: post #124

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…

I actually really want to live in San Francisco, but I don't want to and am not smart enough to work for a FAANG-type company. It's one of the few American cities where you can be a first-class citizen without owning a car and comfortably bike/walk everywhere year-round. SF has a really fascinating history and cool culture. I wish it was possible to work in academia there without already being wealthy.

"am not smart enough to work for a FAANG-type company"

Have you tried to apply for a job? Don't underestimate yourself. I had the same thoughts about myself, then I tried an interview just for fun. Now I'm working for a FAANG company, moved to Canada, and having the best year of my life.

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

#327

Post by dangus » Tue, Jun 23, 2020, 7:36 PM UTC

What I’m confused about is how the Sponsorware is operationalized for people on the paid tier.

How do you only release to people on your sponsor list?

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

#328

Post by encoderer » Tue, Jun 23, 2020, 7:36 PM UTC

bluedino wrote: post #27

Comparing $90k as a W2 employee doesn't really compare to making $112k as a LLC or contractor. Taxes, health insurance, retirement... On the other hand, his amounts are going up, so I'm interested to see how high they will go, and what it will consistently level out at.

You're right. The 112k as his own small business is far, far better. What he's built has real durable value and new people will continue to pay for old content.

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

#329

Post by hutzlibu » Tue, Jun 23, 2020, 7:39 PM UTC

tylerhou wrote: post #280

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…

> - for feature requests/bug fixes, prioritize sponsors Isn't this equivalent to "keep code secret until someone sponsors you?" Except in his case, the work is done before you're sponsored, and in yours, the work is done after?

No. Not at all.

Because there is always a infinite amount of work to do.

Usually you do the most rewarding work.

With no money involved, then it is usually the most fun part.

And with money, it is what other people want. That can be the same, but does not need to.

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

#330

Post by oxAAAFFB » Tue, Jun 23, 2020, 7:39 PM UTC

The payment scheme of the future will be something where a digital product is created and then kept locked up until it’s unlocked by Kickstarter style fundraising. Each individual person gets something they want (the digital product) in exchange for their money, just like before. But under this model, everything might be open source by default, the product only costs society what it is worth (unlike current digital products like movies and songs) and the convoluted nightmare of drm and each-tv-network-has-their-own-subscription-service can finally die.