skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
Brilliant! My advice is to stay in cash (or equivalent). Have patience. Wait 2-4 years and see what happens with the economy. Forget about the cash in the bank (I'm assuming you're well below normal retirement age). Set aside an amount of "play" money. Go play golf or hike Kilimanjaro or whatever works for you. Ignore "advisors" who tell you that you should invest in such-and-such. After some time, you will find things that interest you and that is what you should work on / fund. Invest in / spend time on things you love.

BTW, contrats. Nice job!
Unless you are flying, in between cell towers, on the subway, etc.

Also, there may be a substantial number of ipod touch who would be left out.
1) Stay liquid (ING or loonies-in-a-shoe-box)
2) Wait until the markets bottoms
3) Buy Minnesota

A year or two from now people with cash reserves are going to clean up.
You could invest in a nice consulting company, http://www.lab305.com, a couple guys trying to get things moving with some very good prospects in the works :) Then we could all be cashing out for another 2 million next year?
Go take a vacation and start thinking about your next startup
This is exactly what you should NOT do!
He attacks the article instead of making straightforward statements about his business. I'm really surprised he did not take the opportunity to address the claims that Yelp manipulates content.
That was mentioned in the article. It was around the point were he started to refute the anarcho-primitivists.
ouch ;) Of course, i was being facetious. Listen to a wise man like Warren Buffett. Take a certain amount of time, make sure you have a strong financial advisor, and make the money grow. The first million is the hardest, right?
You should avoid telling the people you know about this, since everyone will hound you for a handout if they find out. At the minimum under value the thing,

2 mil = you can afford to buy the person a car and you are an asshole for not doing it.

500K = you can tell them no, since you "need" the money to buy a house.
Bahama Flagged Cruise Ship Stranded With 104 Aboard Ship
This will probably not be a popular opinion, but I think that Google must eventually become public property. Once their search share approaches 100%, they will have a strangle hold on the flow of information. This is too much power for any profit-driven entity to have. Think of what you do when you have a question about basically anything? You go to Google. If the ethics of the engine become even slightly compromised it could be disastrous for society.

I'm not saying this is an issue now, but as corporations grow, they are constantly pressured to increase earnings. Over time, they morph into institutions that no longer resemble their origins. It's tough for us to imagine the Google we all know and love becoming a corrupt, blood sucking corporation, but what if they never discover a new Golden Goose? There will be extreme pressure to draw more profits from search in any way possible.

Of course there are tremendous issues with putting Google under government control. The government is quite possibly an even less trustworthy entity. But unless a major competitor emerges in the next decade, something big will happen on this front.
For several reasons, I'd say so. Using the cell modem really tears through battery life. Also, there are plenty of places in the Chicago area I've noticed where coverage is spotty enough to not have reliable data. Then there's plane flights, which is a time I've sometimes wished for an engrossing game on my phone.

Plus, if you rely on always-on internet, you lose potential users that have an iPod Touch.
Every link to my company site must be red, 18-pt font, and blinking.
Here's what I would do if I got 2 millions reais (I am brazilian ;)

- Pay some debt close family members have (parents, brothers)

- Buy an apartment, in the same price range I've been looking for in the last couple months (150k tops). Would not buy something more expensive, "just because I can";

- Put everything else in the bank. 80% in the most conservative investment the bank has. 15% on middle stuff;

- Travel the world for several months, maybe a year;

Then come back, and look at the money again.

I think one of the most important things you should do, is simply to not spend much money in the near term. 2m is lot, but it's not enough to live like James Bond. You can't sustain a lifestyle of champagne with hookers while cruising the Mediterranean on yatches. Not for more than 6 months anyway.

Going for a 600k house also looks dumb to me. Or anything else too expensive that you wouldn't buy if you didn't had the 2m. Like a Ferrari.

You've gotta give time to adapt to your new richness ;) You've gotta understand that you simply aren't used to have a lot of money. Not that I am personally... but I have read stories about lottery winners going to Vegas or blowing all the money on frivolities just because they now can do it. It's the last thing I want to happen to you!

And congratulations :)
DO NOT go plow all your money into your next startup. A life mistake.
First of all: thanks for the detailed feedback! More precise points:

- About the colors: you're not the only one to have mentioned this. I'll experiment with lighter background etc. and see what comes out.

- The Markdown is straight from http://www.freewisdom.org/projects/python-markdown/, but I agree that in most wiki markup syntaxes I'm used to URLs being linked automatically.

- google-code-prettify looks interesting. Not sure how to integrate it with Markdown, though.

- We'll move the controls up in the sidebar. Indeed the references etc. pushed them too far to the bottom.
How to Boost Brainpower
What other hacks do HNers use to get their brains churning?
Check this article on HN about the same issue (Ariba founder dealing with $1BB exit):

http://www.rediff.com/money/2009/feb/18having-too-much-money...
I meant right thing from the perspective of someone who represents the interests of their shareholders. I try to withhold big-picture moral judgments in such cloudy territory, and assume that what executives do (given certain obvious moral boundaries) to be "right" if it benefits their corporation.
What other hacks do HNers use to get their brains churning?
I'm a fan of the Taleb approach to investing. Put most of your money (~90%, I would say )into bulletproof stuff (Savings Account, CDs, etc), and put a little into risky things. You should be able to get at least 5% ROI on the safe stuff (in the long run, obviously considerably less than that right now), which should guarantee that you'll never fall below middle class, come what may.

To counteract the current market insanity, I would strongly consider buying some inflation indexed government bonds (called TIPS bonds, in the US) with my 'safe' money. In case of inflation they could help, with no real risk (short of the collapse of the government). I know most people are worried about deflation, but I still have nagging inflation worries.

As for the risky stuff, I think Detroit real estate, corporate bonds, and some dividend issuing stocks are seriously undervalued right now. I personally put a little into NRF, which is issuing ~30% dividends per year (at its current stock price). Detroit real estate isn't likely to recover soon, but I think over the next two decades or so you could potentially make a killing.
buy some government fixed interest rate, fixed duration bonds (say 1-2 year duration) if they give you a better interest rate than ING.

don't change your lifestyle too quickly. make sure all changes pass two tests: 1) it feels comfortable 2) you think its rational.
buy gold. bullion if you can instead of futures.

no currency is stable at this point. hyperinflation will wipe out a lot of wealth.
This is devastating news. WTF? For what reason? The ads are there. What is wrong with these people. So much for innovation.
Obviously not, personally I think you should do the second startup with the same starting capital as your first one.

Once is luck, twice is skill.
Since he's in Canada, 600k would get him an OK house in a good neighbourhood or a good house in a decent/undervalued neighbourhood, not anything great... besides, he would most likely get a mortgage, so he could afford to go even higher than that. 150k would get him hardly anything, unless he lives somewhere in the middle of Saskatchewan.

(I speak from personal experience, I own a loft in Vancouver.)

I agree with your overall point though.
The $1M-$10M range is difficult -- it's more than most people know how to manage themselves, but it's not enough to allow you to hire someone to be your full-time money manager.

Based on what you've said and not said, I'm presuming that you (a) have set aside money to handle any income taxes which you'll have to pay, and (b) don't have any immediate plans for how to spend your windfall; and your main concern at the moment is simply where to park the money so that you'll have it available once you figure out what to do with it.

If I'm right about that, your primary concern should be to hedge risks -- that is, to eliminate as many possible ways that your money might vanish. Given that the biggest risks are (a) an asset price crash, and (b) hyperinflation, I'd suggest a diversified portfolio: Keep some money in cash or near-cash assets (bank accounts and cashable GICs), but split most of the money between bonds (or, equivalently, GICs) and stocks. That way, if the stock market collapses you'll have some losses but you'll still hold on to the money you put into bonds/GICs; and if inflation spikes you'll still have they money you put into stocks (since inflation makes fixed-income bonds worthless but proportionally increases the value of stocks).

If you're feeling really paranoid, you might want to split your money between Canadian, US, and European bonds and stocks, just in case something weird happens and the Canadian economy falls apart while the US or European economies don't -- but my impression right now is that the Canadian economy is doing better than the US or EU economies, so I'm not sure that I'd bother with this myself.

Of course, I'm not a real financial advisor, and it's quite likely that there are factors specific to you that I haven't considered -- so really you ought to be talking to an independent financial advisor. Do your own research first, and don't feel that you have to follow their advice -- but listen to what they recommend and the reasons they provide for their advice. Make sure that you're talking to an independent advisor, too, and not just a shill for your bank's funds -- if you need help finding one, I'm sure your lawyer can point you in the right direction (and unlike your bank, your lawyer can be trusted to provide a fair recommendation).

I hope that gives you some starting points for figuring out what to do -- I'd be happy to talk more if you want to send me an email (google me for my email address, and put HN into the subject line so that I know it's someone from here).
I used to use YUI heavily, but not so much any more - I really rely on jQuery to get most of my work done. I still use YUI for the heavy lifting stuff, like creating dialogs, calendar widgets, that kind of thing.

But I found I was really over-relying on YUI stuff just because it was there. For example, we use YUI buttons throughout our app because I figured them out and thought they were cool and looked nice. Which is all true, but it adds extra overhead to pretty much any form we create now.

I try to keep to jQuery as much as possible and only delve into YUI when strictly necessary (though I really wish jQuery would bundle an onAvailable method into the core.)
Not to be a bastard, but hyperinflation is a very rare and distinct phenomenon, not just to be thrown around when the economy turns sour. Real hyperinflation is occurring in Zimbabwe, not Canada or the US.
... Not sure if you're joking or not, but gold is very inflated right now because everyone is panicking and running to it.
Pagerank Explained. Google's PageRank and how to make the most of it.
Understanding Exponents (Why does 0^0 = 1?)
I would put my money into Federally insured bank accounts until I figured out what to do.

While it may be unlikely that ING will fail as a bank, there is no reason to take that risk. Divide your money among banks to stay below the maximum Federally insured limits.

Once you 1) learn what you want to do with the money, 2) get some advice that you can check and challenge, and 3) feel the time is right, move the money to wherever your analysis takes you.

Dividing the money into the savings accounts just buys you time.

ps. Congrats!
I am confused. Why are you asking people what to do with your money when we know nothing about you?

Do you want to just hold on to this money and live off the interest?

Do you want to make more money by working?

Would you like to invest in the stock market?

Are you risk-averse?

Are you willing to move?

Are you charitable?

etc.

Basically, I'm not sure this is the right type of place to ask this question if you are going to tell nothing about yourself and what you aspire to be in life.
in a hyper-hyper-inflation economy the only "stable" thing would be firearms and LOTS of ammo.
Just download it and try it. You'll see why it rocks so much. I agree, the site doesn't do the product justice.
I'd say being a land-owner is a good move for various reasons. Seriously, do you think the situation in terms of foods and water supply is going to get better in the next decade?
http://www.kottke.org/09/02/fruits-and-vegetables-getting-le...
(I don't say, put all your eggs in one basket.)
Any hint on how you made it?

Congratulations anyway
Four chicks at once.
gold is pretty much at it's peak at this point. It can't really go above 1000, so its just a way to freeze your money w/o a chance to grow it, but with a chance for it to lose its value.
Well, avoiding the deeper money management issue and addressing your savings comment, I don't know what sort of depositor's insurance you have up there, or much about Canadian banks at all (other than that BMO owes me $100) but if it's anything like the US right now, I'd spread it out. I think our FDIC limit now is $250k for individuals, it shouldn't be too hard to find 8 banks. If your banks up there have no government-backed depositor's insurance, I'd take a trip stateside (if that's legal and it extends to foreigners, which again I don't really know).

Putting all of your eggs in one very shaky basket would seem to be a bad plan at this point.

Also, I would float me $200k to help me jump start this Ponzi scheme I have an idea for. I'll give you back $300k in a month.
I cannot upmod this enough.

$2m is enough to retire if your costs are low enough -- even earning a measly 1% a year you'll make 20k per year, which is enough to live on if you live in the right town with the right diet. So put the money in a diversified collection of very safe assets that return a few percent, write yourself a check for the interest you've earned every quarter or so, and then forget all about it.

Meantime, depending on your lifestyle, your time may now be entirely your own. Or you may need little more than a small part-time job to be happy. That time is the resource you should plow into your next venture in life. The only part of your own money you should spend on a startup is the money to hire the lawyer who will construct the corporation that will ensure that your startup cannot touch your personal money even if it is sued into dust.
The "usability" mistake of HN is the freaking ginormous line-widths. :( I would consider custom stylesheet, but there's no good hook in HN html to grab on to without screwing up other sites. (Seriously, more sites should start adding their domain name as id on html tag. Such as [html id="news-ycombinator-com"].)

(I use Safari.)
Well, sure, but then I'd have to manually enter the date on every entry.
I am disappointed in the quality of your response.
First off, send me some cash. If you don't know what to do with it, give it to me (I'm a fellow canadian, eh).

Next thing would probably be to spread it around in some high-interest bank accounts and make sure you don't go over the insured amount. But I'm not an expert.

Congrats on the sale and good luck figuring out what you're going to do with all that cash.
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My advice: don't listen to suggestions from random people on the internet (though I like a lot of the suggestions in this thread). Talk to other successful sellers and a diverse selection of wealthy people and find out what they did with their money. Also, Gurbaksh Chahal's book "The Dream" has a good overview of the emotions involved in becoming rich, from the perspective of someone who sold his companies for millions of dollars.
Indeed. If there exists some speech that is unprotected, you can always argue that the fringes are also unprotected. Using this inductive reasoning, you can cover the rest of speech.

Unless, of course, the citizenry fights back. The public needs to understand that in the terms of free speech, the government and corporations is not its friend, but its foe.
Congratulations!

I had a loosely similar experience, and here are a few things I would recommend based on what I did, and wish I had done:

Tell as few people as possible, preferably just your immediate family. Resist the urge to talk about it with friends and associates. This includes offering to buy every acquaintance drinks or dinner. Pretend nothing has changed.

Designate a percentage as money you will not touch... ever. Find a financial planner, which you trust, and have them help you identify low risk investments. Then, forget about this portion.

I don't know how old you are, but assuming you are not at retirement age, begin considering your next move. Consider options that don't require 2mil to get started. ;)

This doesn't mean you can't take a well-deserved break, but don't talk yourself into early retirement. This may be more difficult than it seems, so seek motivation in this area wherever you can find it. The fact is, 2mil is certainly nice, but if you stop now, you'll go through it quicker than you think. Treat it as a cushion, not a windfall.

Good luck!
Those same racketeering statutes also do things like say prevent unions from making secondary-strikes, which is why unions in americahave been all but completely neutered for the last 100+ years.
using the word 'inflated' assumes that the stock market has overreacted on the negative side. this is not the case, in my estimation.

the significant spread between bullion and future contracts is also telling.
Sarah Lacy?
Ask HN: What's the best way for outsiders to get a startup team together?
I'm relatively young and of the writing, editing, and political vocations. That said, I also have a big interest in social computing. I'd love to do things for myself, but I recognize my limitations. I have a few startup ideas that I think could be very successful if handled correctly. Unfortunately, I need engineers and I don't know how to get them. As a student, it doesn't make sense to try to hire people, and I'm fine with having equal shares; I just don't know where to find people who are skilled, trustworthy, and motivated. Are there some forums or something that I'm missing out on? Are the established startup communities too hard to penetrate by people outside the industry?
Maybe I'm missing something, but I feel the need to point out that the article is an attack on anarcho-primitivism and Ted K., not an endorsement.

"The stronger that technology makes society, the less freedoms." Why? - for a number of reasons mainly stemming from the fact that technology needs to be maintained. If you want to live in a house, you need to build a house and society must be developed to a point to allow you to build the house. So, our desire to build houses compels society to do all of the things necessary, from logging to manufacturing. (The point is ultimately flawed, but the article addresses this.)

"Technology destroys nature, which strengthens technology further." Some technology can preserve nature. And even if that weren't the case, why would destroying nature make technology "stronger"? What does that even mean? - by making it more pervasive. If you accept the premise that technology has an influence on people, then the mere spread of it would make its influence stronger. Also, by making us more dependent. If we over fish the ocean, we must then really on fish farms.

"This ratchet of technological self-amplification is stronger than politics." Um, what? Stronger in what respect? What do the two have to do with each other, and how is either "strong"? It's like saying that insurance is stronger than yellow. - If you were familiar with Marxism this would make sense. According to Marx, economics determined politics, that is, all of history was determined, not by ideas, but by basic economics needs and the conflicts that these needs and desires caused. To the extent that technology drives and empowers our economy, the same could be said of it: that our need of technology is a greater determiner of world events than the machinations of individual politicians and movements. This point, I think, is actually true. If a new technology arrives that 'conflicts' with current laws, it is the laws that will adapt not the technology. Witness bittorrent.

"Any attempt to use technology or politics to tame the system only strengthens it." What system? The vast collection of industry, infrastructure, and legal structures needed to produce the technology and stability people take for granted. So, spreading anarcho-primitivist propaganda on the Internet makes you dependent on the Internet (to an extent.)

"Therefore technological civilization must be destroyed, rather than reformed." Ah, I knew the (openly) crazy bit was coming... Well, if technology's influence really is negative...

"Since it cannot be destroyed by tech or politics, humans must push industrial society towards its inevitable end of self-collapse". If it's inevitable, why do we need to push for it? Not that that's not the only thing wrong with this statement... - For the same reason that Marxists are ethically obliged to bring about the inevitable revolution. We must all immanentize the eschaton.

"Then pounce on it when it is down and kill it before it rises again." Again, nonsense. - no, this makes perfect sense: Create a culture of killing smart people and you'll be sure that technological advance never happens.
The researchers could have saved a lot of trouble by just reading John Cheever stories.
Very cool, I didn't know about this.

Python library for this:
http://www.seanet.com/~bradbell/pycppad/index.xml
Adwords also clearly labels which results are sponsored and doesn't touch the non-sponsored ones. I think the meat of the allegations in this article are that users have no way of knowing whether a negative review was left by Yelp staff, or a positive one was hidden because the business didn't pay up, or a negative one was hidden because the business did pay.
Dude, you need a blog.
He makes good points no doubt, but the article just seemed a little long winded to me, maybe the book is better.
Git and GitHub: A Free Course by RubyLearning
yes, it is rare. hyperinflation occurs in destabilized economies that have too much printed cash relative to physical assets (to oversimplify a bit).

the US govt has printed too much money and keeps going further with stimulus packages and bailouts. the dollar is strong, currently, because it is the default fiat currency of the world. at some point the US will not be able to sell more bonds or the foreign creditors will dump dollars on the market or any number of other things can happen to trigger inflation.

you don't have to agree, but i would bet that hyperinflation will hit.