# How to Earn a Billion Dollars by Paul Graham

5 Hacker News commenters recommended How to Earn a Billion Dollars by Paul Graham and 6 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 1 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Recommended as a set of useful tips on earning money, written down clearly. Critics say it encourages growth at all costs and is not a high-quality essay.

## Why people recommend it

- Useful tips, clearly written down (2 comments): "If you find just one useful tip in it, it will be well worth it for you." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48536225)) "It's refreshing to see everything written down in a document like this." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48528876))

## What people warn about

- Encourages growth at all costs (2 comments): "what a disappointment of an essay, encouraging a growth at all costs mindset and pretending that this growth doesn't involve/encourage bad side effects" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48527530)) "But this one is harmful; nobody needs a billion dollars." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48528049))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Programming as Theory Building by Peter Naur](https://hackerapproved.com/p/programming-as-theory-building.md): 32 recommend
- [Ur-Fascism by Umberto Eco](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ur-fascism.md): 18 recommend
- [Politics and the English Language by George Orwell](https://hackerapproved.com/p/politics-and-the-english-language.md): 14 recommend
- [Right to Read by Richard Stallman](https://hackerapproved.com/p/right-to-read.md): 12 recommend
- [Meditations on Moloch by Scott Alexander](https://hackerapproved.com/p/meditations-on-moloch.md): 11 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "How to Earn a Billion Dollars by Paul Graham", https://hackerapproved.com/p/how-to-earn-a-billion-dollars/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).