Making Money
by Terry Pratchett · first published 2007
31% recommend69% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Entertaining Discworld novel about a con man turned reluctant bank overseer, praised for its humour and for portraying how money, trust and currency work; suits readers who enjoy satire of finance and society.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
The Ankh-Morpork Post Office is running like . . . well, not at all like a government office. The mail is delivered promptly; meetings start and end on time; five out of six letters relegated to the Blind Letter Office ultimately wend their way to the correct addresses. Postmaster General Moist von Lipwig, former arch-swindler and confidence man, has exceeded all expectations—including his own. So it's somewhat disconcerting when Lord Vetinari summons Moist to the palace and asks, "Tell me, Mr. Lipwig, would you like to make some real money?"Vetinari isn't talking about wages, of course. He's
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…are the most altruistic people in the world, charging people only what it costs to mine the gold, not what the market would bear. I wish other companies could be so generous! Also, I would recommend "Making Money" by Terry Prachet. Good book that actually explores a lot of the same ideas behind gold as the basis of a currency. In essence, the main character eventually realizes that the gold doesn't actually…
on “Please remove mitsuhiko/*” ↗Perhaps you should read Hogfather or Making Money by Terry Pratchett. In which the importance of the lies that society tells itself is touched upon. "All right," said Susan. "I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need... fantasies to make life bearable."…
on “ST3000DM001” ↗Terry Pratchett’s Making Money portrays it quite well, imho. It doesn’t hurt that it’s an entertaining read. I was surprised to realise bank notes used to be tied to a bank, not a state.
on “The British Empire's Resilient Subsea Telegraph Network” ↗I can’t speak to real life but if you want to read an enjoyable depiction of how society might react to novel currencies, check out Going Postal and Making Money by Terry Pratchett.
on “Show HN: The Bitcoin Note – Secure, Self-Custodial Bitcoin Wallets in Cash Form” ↗Discworld's Going Postal and Making Money by Terry Pratchett are worth checking out. They are sort-of about startups; the main character has to re-organize the Post Office and the Banking system.
on “Ask HN: Fictional books related to startups?” ↗Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. I'd also strongly recommend Terry P's Going Postal and Making Money. I have a long list of non-fiction books I've read and enjoyed. Most recently, I read Paul Graham's Hackers and Painters. Would definitely recommend it!
on “Ask HN: What is the greatest book you've ever read?” ↗…the emergence of TokenA is that someone promises that it's worth some value and that the promise made is trusted by enough people. If you enjoy a good read, I'd suggest you check out Going Postal and Making Money by Terry Pratchett, they discuss (among much hilarity) the emergence of a postal system and stamp trading, along with the eventual evolution into paper money. There are certainly better academic papers…
on “Orphaned currency: the odd case of Somali shillings (2013)” ↗> The tiny minority is Musk As Terry Pratchett so wonderfully put it in Making Money (Discworld #36)[0], there is "a piece of ancient magic called [..] fifty-one percent of the shares". As far as what happens at SpaceX goes, Musk isn't the minority. He's the (?? 78%) majority owner.…
on “SpaceX said to fire employees involved in letter rebuking Elon Musk” ↗Of all things, the thing that helped me understand this best was Terry Pratchett's novel Making Money. Without giving away the ending too hard: in the post-gold era, the value of a nation-state's currency has very little to do with numbers or tangibles and everything to do with the perceived power of…
on “How the U.S. Federal Reserve Went Broke” ↗I was thinking of a different Pratchett joke: in Making Money, Moist is told to use the barber's knock: "shave and a haircut, no legs!" I'm rereading the Moist series again, and it is so incredibly thick with humour and references. I mean, all of the books are,…
on “Shave and a Haircut” ↗If you liked this post, you'd enjoy Terry Pratchett's Making Money.
on “A little secret that will make the world fall apart” ↗On a similar vein, I recommend Terry Pratchett's 'Making Money'.
on “Bitcoin value falls from above $33 to below $3” ↗The novels Going Postal and Making Money by Terry Pratchett actually use this as a plot device; they're comic Fantasy books that roughly parallel the invention of fiat currency. It goes from people starting to use stamps instead of coins because…
on “Post office stamps as currency (1862)” ↗…analogue computer using water as the working medium) in the 1940s in New Zealand [1]. Terry Pratchett played with the concept in one of his books [2]. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MONIAC_Computer [2] Making Money (2007)
on “The Tangled History of Soviet Computer Science” ↗…finance currency economics math money power Some common reccomendations I've seen are anything by Neal Stephenson The other recommendations Ive seen are fantasy like The Traitor Baru Cormorant The Dagger and Coin series Making Money Going Postal Does anyone have any similar recommendations?
on “Ask HN: What are the best Sci-Fi books you've ever read?” ↗