I get a lot of value out of HN, but the biggest wins monetarily have been advice regarding consulting, often across multiple threads. Two favorites which stuck with me enough to be Googleable:
That was at my last week at the day job. As I recall, I posted from my Kindle at godawful late following hellish overtime, dinner, writing the first page of notes for AR, and checking into a hotel. I think I was still calling it Notiphone then. Notifo launched a week or so later and I scrapped the name.
I'd check the notebook but lost it in America in October.
I'm sure we're all guilty of that. X idea gets in our head. What a silly idea!. X idea sticks around. X idea still sticking around. Maybe X idea isn't so bad...
Woohoo, my post is Patrick's favorite! If you only you had written a book, I would have immediately demanded an autographed copy! :) Ah well, please stop by when you're in Seattle.
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1225179
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1191094
Comments rather than threads picked because they stuck, but the contextual threads were also good.