
Ask HN: Any rich programmers that don't have to work but coding for fun? - ertucetin
Are there any rich programmers that don&#x27;t have to work for a company just writing code that what they want to write?
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TAcoding4fun
(created throwaway for this)

Thank fucking GOD I find myself in this position right now! Through some
random luck and the sell of an old startup I am now able to take a few years
off and just like think and sleep all day and have inappropriately long
lunches.

At present I am writing crypto currency trading shit just for fun, having a
blast, and most importantly, not having to worry about any meetings or
struggling for progress on the HUGE PILE OF UNIMPORTANT BULLSHIT THAT WAS MY
TODO LIST.

A forgot password form? Gimme a fuckin break. A build script??? HAHA.

I recommend it highly.

~~~
godot
Since you've made a throwaway for this, I figured I'd ask more intimate
details: How much money did you make off of that sale that you consider it
good enough to take a few years off but not retire completely? $1 mil, $2 mil,
more, less?

I ask since amount of money needed to live without work for a few years in
silicon valley/bay area (assuming you're in it) is typically enough money to
retire forever in a place like Thailand/Chiang Mai, and so would follow up and
ask why won't you do that :)

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TAcoding4fun
About 2-3 times my yearly salary (which was pretty comfortable as it was). I
have a lot of room to slash my expenses. I'm just looking for some breathing
room to get back to what I love about computer science.. I don't mind working
again in a few years! :)

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mindcrash
Notch. Made a shit ton of money selling Mojang/Minecraft to Microsoft. Now
basically spends his life partying, playing games and coding games for fun.
Oh, and shitposting on Twitter. Ofcourse.

~~~
acct1771
He does a bit better than shitposting sometimes.

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Antoninus
My company pays for my rent and living expenses which allows me to save
roughly 50k a year working remotely. I tried working less hours but found
myself bored with going to the gym 3 hours a day and working by the pool. I'd
rather be in stinky room surrounded by white boards and joking around with
other devs. I found that 5-6 solid hours of productivity is better than 8-9
hours 5 days a week.

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zerr
Non-rich programmer: works on CRUD apps to feed the family.

Rich programmer: works on compilers, OS dev, DB internals, in-house 3D
engines/games, AI, etc... to have fun :)

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SirLJ
In a team lead role for a big telco, (build my wealth trough stock trading
robots, can retire anytime) and every year cannot get myself to leave and
retire early...

Too much fun, interesting projects and great team to lead (also working from
home helps a lot)...

Maybe next year :-)

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chris11
I"m curious, whats the amount you are investing, what's the profit, and what's
the risk? I've always been a little bit suspicious of day trading as a way of
making money considering the type of ads I see, the fact that I'm an
unsophisticated investing unable to access the advantages professionals have
(like fast trade execution and much cheaper trading costs), and that slippage
means I won't be able to set a hard limit on how much I am willing to risk.
How do you deal with those things?

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SirLJ
The amounts are 6 and more digit accounts, average profit per year double
digits (last year was the first with tipple digits return, manly because of
one trade, probably won't repeat itself)... The miracle of compounding is that
what is working for you in the long run...

EDIT: I do have losing days, weeks, months and years as well, it's not a
smooth sailing by any stretch of the imagination...

I am not day trading, you cannot win against HFT shops, and forget about the
ads for trading gurus, coaches and mentors, no one will sell you a winning
trading strategy, because the more money/people are trading it, the less
effective is going to be and eventually will be arbitraged away...

If you trade high quality/high volume stocks, there is basically no slippage
(few cents at most), so you can easily calculate the risk for your strategy
using tools like Kelly criterion - half Kelly is a good start and you go from
there...

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OneDayMaybe
Throwaway for this. I'm virtually there, although not quite: I will inherit
~$1M cash, arguably within the next 1-3 years.

I never thought too much about it and did what I thought would interest me
anyway; I thought I had to get a sense of what a modern capitalist society
really is. I ended up starting a somewhat successful career in CS (I’m in my
late 20s), did the 9-5 thing for a few years… but I got to the point where I
simply don’t care much anymore. Call it a quiet burn out if you want. Sure,
coding can be fun, but I don’t see how “becoming a better programmer” will
eventually make me happy. It will at best keep me busy - and most likely won't
make me contribute with anything too positive for the world at large.

I’m not ruling out the fact that I’ll keep writing code in my life for one
reason or another; I’m simply not interested in having a career anymore. I
feel incredibly lucky to have a safety net that will allow me to decide how to
best spend the rest of my life. I also feel the responsibility to do something
truly positive with it, and not just for me.

~~~
rozenbor
Typical programmer in Valley will make much more then $1M in cash, so it's not
enough to not care about money

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zzzzzzzza
You can retire for life with under half a million in lots of places if you're
willing to live (very) frugally (and single/have no dependents).

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malux85
Im not rich, but my company affords me this luxury - my basic income is taken
care of, and I'm free to work on what I want to -
[https://ramm.science/](https://ramm.science/)

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mkj
Justin Frankel comes to mind. Though REAPER might be profitable, not sure.

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matchmike1313
I don't know about rich but I code for my few side-business projects and I
decide when to take on more work or when I want to do a project for myself
that intrigues me.

~~~
enkiv2
For sure.

I'm far from rich, but I'm comfortable enough that I can afford to stop caring
about my employer's bottom line at quitting time.

I nevertheless spend a lot of my free time coding, and enjoying the freedom of
not having to worry about anything I make being profitable. (If you've never
written a big complex project alone for your own enjoyment rather than for
someone else / as a resume padder, I highly recommend it. It's freeing to
write code that you wouldn't want to put on a resume and couldn't sell.)

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ioddly
I don't know if I'm rich (actually decidedly not), but I freelance and save a
large proportion of my income, and when I'm not working on client projects I
just work on my own, which can be for weeks at a time. My day pretty much
looks the same whether I'm working for a client or myself, but with way less
emails/Slack/whatever taking me out of flow.

It's a very enjoyable way to pass the time.

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4k
A friend's friend. Working in Amazon for 15-16 years (still not manager). His
stock would easily make him a millionaire. He puts minimal effort just enough
not to get fired, doesn't care about promotions, works 6-7 hour days and has a
good life. My friend asked him why doesn't he quit? He said this job gives him
something to do.

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maxxxxx
I have never been in that situation so maybe I can't judge. But it makes me
sad that people when given freedom to do whatever they want to do, need some
corporation to tell them what to do. Again, maybe I would be the same if I was
in that situation.

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everdev
Yes, and it's far more enjoyable now but it's harder too.

With clients I had deadlines that forced decisions. With only artificial
motivators I've found it too easy to follow my passion rather than launching
something.

But, I do get to explore what I want to now.

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brucephillips
Can I ask how you made your money?

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everdev
I ran a website design company in Silicon Valley.

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stuaxo
Did this for a year. Saved £30k - enough to go to Asia, but not live like a
backpacker, actually live in places and spend roughly working hours on my own
projects.

Just need to win the lottery now and do it full time.

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rozenbor
My friend worked as a teacher of computer science to a guy who is a local bank
owner(over 30mil$ fortune) retired at his 70th and studying software
development as a hobby. He payed not much btw

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yesenadam
Are you assuming only rich people do that, or only interested in rich
programmers? (Whatever 'rich' means exactly. Whatever definition you have in
mind, I mean.)

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ainiriand
I don't believe that you have to be rich for that. But I get your point. It is
not my case unfortunately, but I believe that some can be doing just that.

