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0 pointsmaaaats9y ago0 comments

Writing a book is not exactly passive.

0 comments

I'm going to assume from your reply that you've just not heard the term before but passive income refers to income from something where you do the work up front and it continues to pay down the road.

A book is a perfect example of that.

bshimmin9y ago

I'm trying to work out what would count as passive enough to satisfy the grandparent commenter, if writing a book doesn't qualify. Maybe inheritance? Even robbing a bank requires some upfront effort, so it's hardly passive.

thinkloop9y ago

A new book is not a perfect example of that, it's a shitload of work - very likely more work per dollar earned than a day job. Passive income is related to using capital rather than effort to generate money. If the IP of the book was passed down to his kids and they continued to make money off it, or enough money was made from it to surpass a regular working wage for the hours spent, maybe then it becomes "passive". Right now it's just a lot of underpaid effort on credit.

dirtyaura9y ago

You are correct that it is not passive income in traditional sense, but in HN, "the passive income" has come to mean something that generates automatic revenue after the initial work without requiring significant maintenance/upkeep work.

The prime example of passive income used here is patio11's Bingo Card Creator.

One also could say that in traditional investing, the upfront work is the research work to find right index funds or buying property in real estate investing. They might be less work than writing a book, but revenues e.g. from passive index fund investing are also significantly less than from writing a book, if your starting capital is small.

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therealjohn9y ago

2k/mo with zero work is indeed passive.

albertTJames9y ago

Yes, and not only is it not passive, but you actually have to say something interesting, which means you have to have some business knowledge in some field. And even then, it actually makes money only if it works. Which is rare, probably more rare than a successful startup depending on the specific domain you are writing about.

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