HN Explorer

Which would you pick? A million dollars or the skills to get to the million?

4 points by askaaronlee ↗ HN
If someone put a million dollars in cash in front of you and he gave you two choice.<p>Pick the million dollars, or pick to learn the skills to get to that million dollars.<p>While it makes sense to pick skill, would you give up the million dollars so easily? :)

10 comments

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personlurking
If the skills came with a guarantee that you would get to that million dollar mark in a certain amount of time then it becomes more interesting. Also, one can be average in their ability to do something, so it'd have to be about fluency in said skill(s).

Stil, I'm not sure which at this moment.

mprny
I'd rather be lucky than good. One million dollars please.
maaku
> While it makes sense to pick the skill...

Why does it make any sense to pick the skill? My goal in life is not to make money, it is to do things which mostly unfortunately require money. A million dollars would be a life-changing amount of money, and I could get started on the real things I want to do with my life in the mean time.

nicholas73
If I had a million dollars, I'd have time to develop skill to the next million. No brainer decision for me.

For most people the decision should be easy as well, as a million is life changing money, whereas skill entails risk.

The question might be better as, insta-100k or a chance for a million (skill).

brd
I'd say that most of the HN community has enough "skill" to make a million dollars. Unfortunately, skill is only part of the equation.

On the other hand, having a million dollars provides a significant amount of runway and/or working capital which is (arguably) more rare than skill.

So I'd argue that a million dollars is a far better asset than the skill to earn a million dollars. A million dollars can more readily earn you another million, it can afford you time to learn whatever skills you might be interested in and it also provides you with the alternative option of never bothering to focusing your effort on making money.

msie
I'll take the million. Lots of skilled people out there who are not millionaires.
krapp
You know what makes it a lot easier to learn how to make a million dollars?

Already having a million dollars.

Not having to keep a steady job or worry about housing or food for a while amounts to a lot of study time.

deepakkapoor
The choice here is between something tangible i.e. million dollars or skills to get a million dollars i.e. a promise which may or may not be fulfilled at some time in future. A bird in hand is worth two in the bush.