Ask HN: How much money have you made with a single personal laptop?

I made millions. And then I woke up.

But I do make some, and many people make lots of money with simple tools all the time.

A recent HN thread asking about hourly billing rates [1] had some people charging $1500/hr with just a screwdriver.

What I consider more interesting is the circumstances leading to someone finding themselves in a position where they can command so much compensation using such simple resources.

And I'm afraid a lot of people won't share those circumstances, you included OP, and myself. That's because if you're able to make all that cash with just you and your laptop, that means anyone can, and the barrier to entry is pretty weak. The barrier is simply knowing something exists. Knowing about some niche, the opportunity, where to look, etc.

And as soon as someone finds your niche, someone else with a laptop will come along and crash your party. Who wants that?

HN-types love to parrot the meme, "ideas are worthless, it's the execution that matters". Except that's not true, because surprisingly often, the only barrier to entry is simply being aware of the existence of some opportunity, the idea, and not some deep arcane knowledge or skill or how magnificent your execution is.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38182965

bayjird · 2 years ago

I didn't mean to be coy with how I made my money. It was mostly a combination of teaching at a coding bootcamp and working as a technical interviewer.

I didn't invent anything or start my own business. In that sense the barriers were low. On the other hand I benefited from being born in Canada and studying computer science in university - these could both be somewhat of a barrier to making money from a laptop.

billy99k · 2 years ago

"ideas are worthless, it's the execution that matters"

This is true. However, when a large corporation with a near unlimited supply of money becomes aware of your idea and executes, you probably don't really have a chance as a single-person founder.

giantg2 · 2 years ago

"But I do make some, and many people make lots of money with simple tools all the time."

My boss makes money. I'm a simple tool.

I started my first open source application on a small netbook back in 2009 when I was deployed in Afghanistan. When I came back to my corporate job I use my new technical experience to more than doubled my salary with 3 raises in a year: first compensation boost for minimum salary after transferring from a design job in marketing to a developer job in product development, second for promotion to senior when I became the company A/B test engineer, third a match raise to prevent me from leaving after receiving an offer letter elsewhere. I set the record for most raises in a year and largest compensation boost (in percentage terms) at that company, which at the time had 3200 employees.

That netbook was awesome. I would frequently pack it my rucksack without care which would become palletized cargo under other peoples' gear on aircraft. It took coming home to my kids to break it.

VoodooJuJu · 2 years ago

austin-cheney · 2 years ago

mikewarot · 2 years ago

This question is kind of like asking what kind of camera a photographer uses, vs the amount they are paid for their photography. Sure, better gear makes some things easier, but without the skills to utilize it, you're down to pure luck, and most random snapshots are not keepers.

Since I started out with machines with 64k of RAM (or less), my $200 phone is lightyears ahead of what I used back in my paid programming days in the 1980s/90s. Heck, I run a VAX 11-780/VMS System on it, just for fun.

You haven't actually made $75k with it. You made $75k with whatever knowledge or work you put in on it. Which is odd that you mention it as specifically a 2015 MacBook Pro, but fail to mention what you actually did.

Dead Comment

Jemaclus · 2 years ago

In the spirit of your question, I run my side business from my personal mid-2016 Macbook, and total revenue so far is over $1M (over many years). It's probably time to upgrade to a new Macbook. :)

gt565k · 2 years ago

I work while wearing costco $10 socks and have been using the same socks for 5 years.

I've made $XXYYZZ.WW while wearing these socks in 5 years.

fuzztester · 2 years ago

Allow me to sell you a dozen noseclips.

1. $5 or $7 or so. Not got paid yet, coz its from a platform that pays out when you reach $100.

2. $50 odd, but similar to 1, from affiliate marketing.

3. $80, from ads on a blog, but like 1.

4. $1500 plus, from an online software help platform. Member there, not creator.

5. $Tens of thousands, from software consulting and training.

LewisVerstappen · 2 years ago

Question is a bit poorly defined. There are crypto-currency traders who've made billions from a single laptop.

Do you mean by writing code from the laptop? Building a product using the laptop? Does trading investments not count?

That's true, I suppose someone has made a billion dollars trading crypto with one laptop. I was thinking more along the lines of founding a company and doing "honest work" to make the money :P