I think a more interesting perspective on this article would be "there's no such thing as a quick buck, or if there is, this is not a story of it."
Sure, he made 2,500 guilders in 5 minutes, but the author says of his early QnX days: "After a couple of visits there to talk over strategies on how to solve certain problems using QnX [...]". So to me this anecdote is about how guy spent an amount (several days? months?) learning QnX, getting involved in the (1-man) community around him, and became somewhat of an expert in QnX such that when the time arose, he was the guy they called.
The way the story is told is akin to patio11 saying "an easy way to make a quick buck is consult with a BigCo!" True... but that ignores the time, effort, and experience Patrick has put into building his skills.
TL;DR: "Invest time in learning something valuable" is a better takeaway from this article, IMO.
After reading the article, even I found the title tongue in cheek. That said, GP has explicitly called out (quiet well) what he thought was the underlying lesson and I am thankful for that.
It's a bit banal though, of course you should learn something valuable. Isn't that what your mother's been telling you all these years?
I think the better lesson which is directly applicable to all coders is "question your assumptions". To me this was a huge benefit of learning ruby as it happens to be one of the easiest languages to pull your assumptions right out from under you.
You're right. And I hope my comment didn't come across as harsh. I would have said the same thing to your face, but my tone and body language would have softened it quite a bit.
Sure, he made 2,500 guilders in 5 minutes, but the author says of his early QnX days: "After a couple of visits there to talk over strategies on how to solve certain problems using QnX [...]". So to me this anecdote is about how guy spent an amount (several days? months?) learning QnX, getting involved in the (1-man) community around him, and became somewhat of an expert in QnX such that when the time arose, he was the guy they called.
The way the story is told is akin to patio11 saying "an easy way to make a quick buck is consult with a BigCo!" True... but that ignores the time, effort, and experience Patrick has put into building his skills.
TL;DR: "Invest time in learning something valuable" is a better takeaway from this article, IMO.