>but you could create content people are willing to pay for.
I'm sure he/she can try, but not sure / could achieve this goal. Out of the thousands of web/online services, I only pay money to 4:
1password,
paypal,
skype, and
itunes.
While in theory one could get at least one dude to pay for a service, I doubt a randomly selected poster on Hacker News can get enough cash this way to buy a taco on a regular basis (i.e. often enough to survive on the calories). At least in the current situation.
Not to go all DHH on you, but you could create content people are willing to pay for.