Name: Golden Rules for Making Money
ISBN: 9781508917120

What Hacker News says

andrewmcwattersJun 2021

Thanks for sharing Mark Cuban’s book. It has some very tangible and practical words of wisdom that aren’t just masturbatory feel good stories in there.

It’s quite old and maybe overplayed but I enjoy THE ART OF MONEY GETTING or GOLDEN RULES FOR MAKING MONEY By P.T. Barnum. His insights might be about 200 years old, but they are in the exact same vein, and perhaps a bit more tasteful language.

thread

carapaceNov 2020

I don't think you should write FOSS software if you want to get paid for copies of it or the use of copies of it. That kind of defeats the whole point[1].

Either: 1) Be comfortable being extremely poor. This was the route I initially took: I was homeless during the time I learned UNIX and Python, etc. and had plenty of free time to work on writing code.

2) Be wealthy already. The easiest is to be born to wealth, but if that didn't work out for you you'll have to acquire wealth yourself. There is a wealth (pun intended) of information on this already, and it's beyond the scope of this comment, but I'll recommend "The Art of Money Getting or, Golden Rules for Making Money" by P. T. Barnum (Yes, that P. T. Barnum!) esp. the last chapter: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/8581/8581-h/8581-h.htm and "The Richest Man in Babylon" which "remains in print almost a century after the parables were originally published, and is regarded as a classic of personal financial advice." ~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Richest_Man_in_Babylon_%28...

3) Get paid for the writing itself (which is hopefully solving someone's immediate problem, eh?) (This is what RMS himself does, FWIW.) (Can be combined with option #2 to bootstrap wealth.)

[1] The "whole point" being something like, "Let's accelerate the techno-singularity and go live in Star Trek with cool aliens who like us." yeah?

thread

superasnFeb 2018

You are absolutely right, some articles are indeed timeless yet it's quite easy to miss them. This is a very good idea. A personal favorite of mine that gets posted here often is the Golden Rules for Making Money By P.T. Barnum (1880).

thread

breckOct 2008

Recently there were 2 good posts from accomplished businessmen on how to get rich:

Golden Rules for Making Money by P. T. Barnum (1880): http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=310056

And

Mark Cuban on How to Get Rich: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=323540

Can anyone recommend any other sites/books that are as good as these? Thanks!

thread

skmurphyJun 2025

P.T. Barnum wrote "The Art of Money Getting: The Golden Rules for Making Money" in 1880 at the age of 70 when he was already an accomplished businessman, politician, philanthropist, and author--after his hugely successful 1855 autobiography "The Life of P.T. Barnum: Written By Himself."

It's available online at http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8581

This post provides a summary of the 21 rules and some commentary for today's entrepreneurs. Barnum's Advice Holds Up Well after Thirteen Decades

What was most surprising about reading his "Golden Rules For Making Money" was how timeless they were. The hold up very well 140 years later.