mcdoug

Will do. I have some sales experience though I never worked as a dedicated sales person. I've made cold calls that turned into paying gigs and I've done sales as an engineer: go present the technical aspects of the product and take potential customers from "who the hell are you guys?" to "how can I give you my money?". I also have a lot of negotiation experience and do quite well with that, but never a bad thing to get better at it.

Money can buy me time, which is one of the most limited things we have on this earth. I know what you are saying and this is advice I've often given as well. But please consider that I never said that I was looking to buy happiness. I want money for practical purposes and I know what it can and can't do. I am quite happy in my personal life and money can only mildly enhance that. But I also am tired of budgeting for whether I need new tires or to get my moles looked at this month. Whether I should invest in a retirement fund or my kids' college fund. Whether I can go to a restaurant or buy a new pair of slacks and a couple of shirts. Whether to keep living in a house that's bursting because it's too small or sell my soul to a mortgage provider for a bigger one.

Wow, this is one of the most helpful comments here. If I can ask for some details:

The CEO track sounds nice. I've done the middle management stuff before and was quite successful at it. In my last job I was heading up the software team for a software/hardware startup, as well as taking on partial management of the support team and the data entry team. I have been C-level at two companies but both were early stage when they went belly up so this is more a bullet point on a resume than something I can point to and say "look there it is". Currently I work for a small enough company that there isn't any more upwards mobility here. I am basically working as an individual contributor directly with clients. The projects are boring but the pay is good and the people I work with are excellent. How would you suggest making a leap from here to something bigger? I live in an area with lots of banks and insurance companies, but not much in the tech world.

On the finance side, again, how do you go about this? What kind of companies do you suggest and what jobs in them? Are hedge funds a good idea? Or do I need to commute to something like NYC and apply for something with a large investor? What qualifications should I focus on before jumping into this? Is mostly reliant on knowing the right people? Is it about technical knowledge of the subject? Or is it about impressing the right interviewer?

It's possible I also just needed to rant about how tired I am of the rat race. You are right of course (though I might not 100% agree on your point #3; valuable connections often come out of spreading the word about your project and my motivation usually increases afterwards).

Yup, I've had good luck with those in the past. Main problem: I am not making way below my market salary. I might be maybe $20k lower than average due to some job perks, but just switching from small software company A to small software company B won't make me a ton more money. Equity in a hot startup might, so I guess I'll be on the lookout.

I haven't seen that particular book and will give it a read, but I have attempted about a dozen lifestyle SaaS businesses. All went best like I was selling peanuts at an allergy sufferers' convention. I am always looking for more opportunities for something like this, but nothing so far has had the right overlap of profitable/my area of expertise/not requiring a stupidly high upfront investment.

Mid 30s. I have a small but slowly growing stock portfolio. If I keep going the way I am, in 5 years I might be able to buy a Model 3 with its worth. My family growing up invested in my education, not in a stock portfolio, so what I have is skills, not cash.

Balance is important. This is why I'm not willing to sacrifice my family, but I am willing to work differently or in a different field. I am old enough to know what balance feels like to me and am always looking to make sure it's maintained.

I am pretty much as high up in my company as I can be without being an owner. We don't use these terms, but effectively I am occupying the role of the CTO.

With the current pandemic I am doing very little going out. That doesn't mean my expenses are better off though. I am directly supporting two kids and my life partner who works but her career is very low paying. She takes care of most of her expenses but housing is on me. I indirectly support two other people because I care about them and their well being. I am stuck living where I am because I am divorced and my ex won't move. If I move I don't get to see my children, which isn't an option for me.

For #1, can you provide any concrete info? What skills, where to get them, how to start getting into that type of work, what does it pay and how, etc.

For #2, again, any specific advice? Are blogs still a profitable thing? What platform do you use to buy/sell blogs and/or plugins?

For #3, yeah already working on that one. Pandemic doesn't help with that.

I am not exactly comparing myself to tech billionaires, but more tech millionaires. Bezos was mentioned just because of the absurdity of his wealth, but I don't want to be that rich. More like, I wouldn't mind finding a way to part Bezos and about $5m of his money.

I have done projects of passion. Last one was completed in February and the business opened in March. For five days. Being a new business, it isn't even eligible for any kind of assistance, so what I did there was to sink a bunch of money and sign a lease so that I have the privilege of adding an extra $1200 a month to my expense list. Decreasing expenses is absolutely something I've been working on, but investing my wages will take decades to build enough wealth to be meaningful.

I 100% agree with you on all of that. I know that it takes both luck and building up to having that luck and the ability to take advantage of it to land something like Amazon or Instagram. I am not aiming to create a unicorn startup. I could probably write a few books on various subjects and see what sticks. Worst case, I get my writing bug exercised. Thank you.

At least I'm not the only one :)

Yeah, that's the problem. I am happy to invest a couple of thousand bucks into something, and while crypto can have some very large returns at times, I'd have to hit something just right for it to grow 500-1000x. I am sitting on some Stellars and a few other cryptocurrencies but the amounts aren't large enough. Even if I double my investment, it'll pretty much allow me to pay a month's of rent or so, not retire. Gambling huge sums requires that you are already rich. That's where a 5% gain in a particular cryptocurrency nets meaningful results.

I have seen a lot of these threads over the years on HN. Most give your two options, with an occasional "read pg, do a startup" type advice thrown in. Things I have considered:

- Switching careers to work closer to where the money is. For example, working for a douchey hedge fund that can pay half a mil a year if things are going well.

- Putting together a pitch deck, flying out to CA and pitching it to every VC who will listen. I have a decent idea for a dating app that solves a lot of the problems with the current crop of dating apps. A VC paying my salary for a year while I develop something like that would work well for me.

- Networking my way up until I am rubbing elbows with the ultra rich and looking for opportunities to help them spend their money.

- Playing the lotto until I'm broke.

If I quit my job a bunch of people will be very negatively impacted. I can switch jobs and I can work on stuff in my spare time, but I can't go to zero income. Unlike Bezos, my family doesn't have anything they can loan me.

Yes, but not focusing on money is how you end up building a business that sells dollar bills for $0.90. A few "for fun" startups have blown up in the past (Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube), but the reason majority fail is lack of business plan for how to actually monetize what they are working on. I don't consider focus on sustainability for a business to be a bad thing, though if a VC handed me $10m to spend trying to buy users I won't say no.

Thanks. I'll look into it.

LeetCode looks like a bootcamp/school for software development. I don't feel like that's where my weakness lies. I am a productive software developer and am up to date on most of the latest tech. Teaching for something like that would probably be more my speed. Also, where I live there are no FAANG companies and relocation is not an option. I work from home and unless there is a local software company that is hiring, I am out of luck.

What do you mean by TC and what is Blind? The rat race is pretty much what I'm trying to escape.

Yes, absolutely. I am not after getting rich overnight. I am after getting rich in the timeframe of say 5-10 years. Quicker is better, but smarter is better than quicker.

Good point:

- Software engineering. I am a full stack developer. I can and do program things from embedded devices, to medium scale web apps, to front end stuff. My graphics skills are sub-par, but I do UX well and can whip up a software solution quickly or architect a complex system. Hardcore comp-sci is not my core skill set as I didn't study it, so I won't be coming up with the next great ML algorithm or factoring large integers, but I can do lots of non-trivial things well nonetheless.

- System administration. I grew up on Linux/BSDs and am pretty good at old school systems administration. I don't need to use Heroku to run my apps if I don't want to.

- Electronics development. I am not an electrical engineer but I studied physics. I have manufactured custom PCBs that actually worked and am pretty good with a soldering iron. One of the products I was working on in the past required a custom enclosure and a Wi-Fi connected embedded system that ran on batteries for several years. I designed and put together prototypes from scratch on my own for this, though the product ended up not taking off for other reasons.

- Leadership/management skills. I am good at organizing work and motivating people. People like working with me. I have led major projects in my career and feel like I can do that again. I would be happiest leading a team of 6-10 people if working in this role.

- Communication skills. I connect with people easily and quickly, especially in person. I didn't start out this way (if this was a thing where/when I grew up, my parents might have had me evaluated as autistic for my inability to feel empathy; I have swung way in the other direction with lots of work on myself over the years). I can often convince people to do things for me even if it goes against their self-interest. While I know I can do that, I am very cognizant of this ability and try to find outcomes that are win-win for everyone even if that means a worse outcome for me. I am good at negotiating (salaries, prices, contracts, etc.). I have no problem approaching a stranger, knocking on doors, asking for or offering help, etc.

- Interviewing skills. I am good at being interviewed (in my career I got many more job offers than been turned down). I am very good at interviewing others for jobs. I have almost always been able to tell who would fit in well and who wouldn't for any given situation.

- Writing/public speaking/teaching. I am a decent writer and a good public speaker. I am told that I am a very good teacher/mentor. People who I have taught in the past have all been very happy with the time and energy they spent in my classes and most have gotten very good at what I was teaching them.

- Photography. I am a decent amateur photographer. I mostly do boudoir photography with friends for fun, but can do portraits well. I have sold a few prints for several $100 each at a couple of art shows I entered on a whim, but due to the nature of what I typically photograph I don't think it has wide appeal.

- Mechanical, construction, plumbing, electrical. I am not a professional in any of these, but have done enough work on my vehicles and homes I've lived in to know what I'm doing. I fix my own vehicles routinely and have redone plumbing for a whole house and have done some electrical work.

- Woodworking. I'm learning how to do some woodworking, just for fun. I mostly make practical things, not art. For example, I built my own motorized sitting/standing desk from hardware store parts.

- 3D printing and small scale manufacturing. It's a hobby, but I'm pretty good at it.

Probably a few others I am forgetting, but these are the main ones.

Yes. Typo. Old thread now, but yes.

That's yet a different issue. Watching an old episode of Seinfeld does not violate anyone's privacy.

Theft: you have a painting. I took it.

Copyright infringement: You painted a painting. I took a picture of it and sold/gave away prints to all my friends.

Violation of privacy: I got into your phone and looked at all your dick pics.

Warrantless search: The police got into your phone and looked at all your dick pics, possibly finding evidence of a crime.

They are different issues which can look similar at times, but are actually completely separate. Pretending like they are is just adding muck to this discussion.

They did try Coinbase before and said that it accounted for less than 0.1% of their transaction volume. People just don't use BitCoin enough. I imagine if it was a higher percentage, you could make the case that switching to BTC-only would drive it higher, but at such minimal numbers, staking your entire business on it seems like a bad risk.

I am a member of the FetLife community as well as an HN reader. First, let me clear up some misconceptions about FetLife that people on here may have.

It's not a porn site, or at least not primarily a porn site. The UX is a lot closer to that of Facebook but specifically for kinky people. If you go to a kink conference and meet someone, they will likely ask for your FL name to connect with you (incidentally Twitter is the other popular mechanism for communicating with fellow kinksters).

FL has a subscription model, and the main benefit you get out of that is the ability to view other members' posted media better. There is a section of the site called Kinky & Popular which is similar to Reddit's front page. Since people can Love (e.g. like/heart/etc.) their friends' pictures and videos, some become popular and land on this front page. Viewing more than the top 200 or watching the videos requires a subscription of $5/month. This section is dominated by media of pretty, skinny, submissive women, and can be seen as having porn-like content. Note that what ends up here is purely moderated by the community and is not promoted by the FL staff. The people whose media ends up here do not get paid for it.

FL until recently has had a very loose content policy. Things like blood play, consensual non-consent, rape fantasies were all allowed. Illegal things were not: no underage media, no snuff, etc. But people were free to discuss their fantasies, their kinks, etc. without much restriction. Whether you agree or disagree with stuff that gets someone off, you were free to discuss what you want and fantasize about what you want, as long as what you are posting violates no US laws.

FL serves an important purpose to our community: it is a place to share events and local community knowledge, to keep up with people, and importantly to identify abusers. This is the main benefit I see in it and it would be the biggest loss if FL went under.

These latest developments have obviously put a damper on things at FL. They have contacted several groups that are able to advocate for them and give advice, and even the EFL at one point was involved. However, the outlook is bleak. Sadly, the community is not united in supporting FL due to seemingly arbitrary content restrictions, and FL is unable to provide a reasonable level of service without those. If someone knows a way to help this community, please post it here and I'll do my best to point it out to the powers that be there. I am not affiliated with the FL staff, just a user, but they do talk to the community freely and frequently.

My biggest problem with Medium is not the platform, but the licensing. I don't like my content being simply licensed to them.

Well there's x.ai as documented here https://medium.com/backchannel/meet-amy-your-personal-ai-ass.... It's even using the same reference to Her in the title graphic.

There's also https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/cubic-your-personal-ai-wi....

And finally there's Facebook M.

It's because they are. How many times will this be brought up? The browser has no way of knowing whether gmail.com should be serving a self-signed cert (pinning notwithstanding), so it must treat a self-signed cert as a MITM attack at all times. Try to think through how else it could possibly work, and you'll see why the browsers do this.

vim, because that's what I know. Look, very few people know both well enough to comment. Also, people are hugely biased by their past experiences. If your editor let you do everything perfectly, except it had one annoying bug, you might hate it and say to others to never use it again.

That said, vim is great because it makes you more producitve than not vim. I moved to it from the likes of NetBeans, Notepad++, etc. years ago. It took me about a day to become as productive in vim as I was in Notepad++. After that I got much more productive than I could have been with Notepad++ over the years. It's possible I would have been even more productive with Emacs, but I picked vim because that's what was installed on the system at the time.

Here's what I don't get about rent control: how is it actually benefitting the renter? If a landlord has a few different units, some under rent control, some not, and some cash to spend on improvements, why would he spend it on improving the rent-controlled units? The Facebook post that was here yesterday even said so much:

The few of us who still remain in San Francisco have no choice but to live in sub-par conditions like mold, windows that don't shut, rodents and countless other issues because there is no other choice, because the rents are so high you can't move so you don't.

This is what you get when you set the price artificially below market value: subpar product. Has anyone here seen Soviet-era apartments? They were exactly like this. So in the long run, the place will fall apart around the renter, and they will be pretty much powerless to do anything about it. And the bit about "can't move" because it's too expensive just means that the area is now too expensive for you and rent-control is the only thing allowing you to stay here.

If the excuse is that your job is here, well maybe your job is not paying you enough to live in SF. Perhaps founders should stop starting companies in this incredibly expensive area, and explore greener pastures.