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Patrick McKenzie Profile picture
@patio11
Oct 1, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read • Read on X
I think this rounds to true and will change over time, largely as the preferences (and professional backgrounds) of the customer base for the high end changes.
An underremarked feature of the world: simple capability to ship user-facing software which was Actually Not Awful was an extremely limited skill set until quite recently.

Maybe ten firms worldwide could do it in 2000 and none of them were doing it in finance.
That’s increasingly “Look, if it is a priority to you, books balance at the end of the quarter. If it is a priority for you, the mobile app is Basically Fine.” sort of capability in finance.
And so I think it’s a matter of time before the UX of premium services approaches the UX of e.g. Cash App or Wealthfront, which have very different intended client bases and use cases but broadly similar levels of “product sense.”

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More from @patio11

Patrick McKenzie Profile picture
Oct 11
I am reminded of the absolutely enormous detection of embezzlement as restaurants switched to cash registers, a switch which was not motivated by concerns of embezzlement.
(The combination of physically absent manager, socioeconomic realities of employee population, and no bookkeeping of marginal pizza created meant that places which believed they were high-trust environments were in fact not.)
(Ran into this once at Ardy’s in college on a debate team trip. Employee came out to take our order and said “OK that’s $20.”

Me: “$20 and what?”
Employee: “$20 will do. I’ll go tell kitchen.”
*leaves*
Me: “We’re leaving.”
Teammate: “What.”
Me: “Not eating a stolen burger.”)
Read 6 tweets
Patrick McKenzie Profile picture
Oct 6
Interesting new AI interaction model which we'll see a lot of in the future, spotted on Bench (bookkeeping service):

Patrick: *uploads statements*
Regular computer system chugs
AI: We have questions on ten line items. Your chat about them will be reviewed by a human bookkeeper.
AI: What's this use of Paypal for?
Me: *explains that it is a coworking space*
AI: Was that for daily or monthly use of a coworking space?
Me: Yes.
AI: Preliminary categorization is as Rent or Lease Expense. Should I proceed.
Me: Yes.
AI. Noted for your bookkeeper. Next.
This is so unbelievably more time efficient than requiring either a synchronous back and forth with my bookkeeper or, more likely, requiring me to bat emails around with a latency of several days because my job is not actually responding to questions about a $5 invoice quickly.
Read 14 tweets
Patrick McKenzie Profile picture
Oct 3
@GrantSlatton @waltuuuhr @tenobrus Some gaishikei (Western firms) do quite well for themselves in Japan (AppAmaGooFaceSoft for example) and *some* of those are *comparatively* not managed in the fashion of traditional Japanese companies *in many of their divisions.*

Real question is probably about startups right?
@GrantSlatton @waltuuuhr @tenobrus Question of why startups which adopted other-than-traditional management don’t just win outright is a subset of “Why don’t startups just win outright.” A Twitter thread will not usefully hold the answer to it.

Note: offering “better” culture *not necessarily in direct interest.*
@GrantSlatton @waltuuuhr @tenobrus There exist desirable candidates and desirable counterparties who are quite fine with the culture that exists, thank you very much, and will appreciate you credibly signaling your willingness to work within it to do business with you.
Read 4 tweets
Patrick McKenzie Profile picture
Oct 3
@waltuuuhr @tenobrus There have been many many attempted efforts at reform around the edges, with a low-to-moderate level of success comparable to other society-wide reform efforts in e.g. the U.S. There are some individual workplaces which attempt differentiation but they largely can’t outcompete.
@waltuuuhr @tenobrus And this is far beyond the power of a single visionary or cabal to fix, even within a single organization. You’re asking for a world historical success in cultural change.

Those are possible. History books are full of them. Most of humanity’s experience downselected for history.
@waltuuuhr @tenobrus Also while this is an acknowledged problem and public policy area that does not actually mean it is a top concern of decisionmakers, who were selected for embodying the virtues of Japanese work culture.
Read 11 tweets
Patrick McKenzie Profile picture
Sep 10
Of many points one could make here:

1) There are other examples of business models which are essentially status arbs.

2) Plausibly there should be more businesses which say “This biz is an extended argument that X should be higher status and will win if we win that argument.”
“Any examples?”

See that is one of the weird rules of the status game: by convention you lose points if you make it obvious you’re playing it, and someone who says “You’re playing it” makes themselves an enemy.
Thus you must use the traditional rule to absolve a salaryman of responsibility for violating the status ladder: put an intoxicating beverage in my hand. Actual intoxication is not a pre-requisite; just the fact of it by convention absolves me from telling you my true thought.
Read 6 tweets
Patrick McKenzie Profile picture
Sep 5
This week on Complex Systems I was joined by @David_Kasten.

We talked mostly about our experiences together at VaccinateCA, in creating essentially public infrastructure while being nominally outside the usual trust graph.
That "nominally" thing is important, and we discuss the importance of policy engagement, PR strategy to court favor with (and cooperation of) more formal actors, laundering blog posts into the policy apparatus by being crafty about it, etc.
But mostly we talked about the operational realities of making tens of thousands of phone calls from a standing start to conduct an ongoing census of Californian (and then American) medical providers,

Which was hard, but crucially it was not *impossible.*
Read 8 tweets

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