Patrick McKenzie Profile picture
Dec 1, 2017 23 tweets 4 min read Read on X
Some people really benefit from hearing advice that everyone knows, for the same reason we keep schools open despite every subject in them having been taught before.

In that spirit, here's some quick Things Many People Find Too Obvious To Have Told You Already.
Your idea is not valuable, at all. All value is in the execution. You think you are an exception; you are not. You should not insist on an NDA to talk about it; nobody serious will engage in contract review over an idea, and this will mark you as clueless.

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More from @patio11

Apr 12
This is 50% of my cycles this year compressed into a tweet.
There are Sorts within the Sort, all the way down.
(Incidentally, if you have an academically disinclined young family member who nonetheless is not a layabout, GC is potentially a good career for them.

Most people get into it after a stint in trades or real estate, but that isn’t strictly required.)
Read 6 tweets
Apr 3
I don’t have anything novel to contribute on the substance of but have to again comment, pace Situational Awareness that I think kicked this trend off, that single-essay microdomains with a bit of design, a bit of JS, and perhaps a downloadable PDF are…ai-2027.com
… a really interesting form factor for policy arguments (or other ideas) designed to spread.
Back in the day, “I paid $15 to FedEx to put this letter in your hands” was one powerful way to sort oneself above the noise at a decisionmaker’s physical inbox, and “I paid $8.95 for a domain name” has a similar function to elevate things which are morally similar to blog posts.
Read 5 tweets
Mar 27
This week on Complex Systems, a continued discussion of credit card rewards, interchange, and what I believe is a persistent misconception about how society should want justice done via payments systems.

It ends with the following, which the team took the liberty of putting into a short clip. (Sound on if you like hearing my voice, but video is subtitled.)
Last week the Atlantic published an opinion piece which argues that the poor are subsidizing the rich's receipt of credit card rewards. This view has wide currency among certain advocates and among opinion writers.

It is not true.
Credit card rewards are actually funded by interchange, a cost which is ultimately paid by card-accepting businesses for a combination of services they get from the payments industry.

Rewards have a few equilibria globally; the U.S. is in a high rewards, high interchange one.
Read 10 tweets
Mar 20
An argument I have had with some credit card enthusiasts for a very long time, paraphrased.

Enthusiasts: I’m robbing the bank blind!
Me: Doubtful? They are probably pretty happy to have a portfolio of you.
E: Oh by carefully layering promotions and making a spreadsheet and…
Me: So checking my understanding: you spend a lot of money on credit cards.
E: Yes, that’s the whole point.
Me: And in a nation which makes it illegal to underwrite using an IQ test, you have self-constructed an IQ test.
E: Yes and I pass it obviously.
Me: Right. Tracking.
Me: You sound like a very desirable bank customer.
E: Oh no I’m not! I take them so hard.
Me: Your income and net worth are likely to be quite higher in ten years right. You predict that too?
E: Oh yeah.
Me: Yeah you’re going to continue consuming lots of financial services.
Read 7 tweets
Mar 20
The Atlantic has an interesting piece on credit card processing. The thesis is that interchange fees redistribute money from poor to rich.

I do not subscribe to this thesis.

For a quick recap on how credit cards make money, see Bits about Money's issue on the topic.

bitsaboutmoney.com/archive/how-cr…
There is a general feeling in some quarters that the payments industry functions as a tax on everyone, and that the incidence of this tax must be highest on the poor, because they're least likely to have a rewards card.
Read 36 tweets
Mar 18
Last up at #microconf, Marcos Rivera from Pricing I/O on pricing.

"How to avoid stupid mistakes in SaaS pricing"

(I am likely to have some thoughts.)
As always, quotes are Marcos (lightly paraphrased; real time is hard), anything attributed to Marcos is a heavy paraphrase, anything unattributed is me.
Marcos was previously Head of Pricing for Vista Equity Partners (hoohah; noted PE firm in software space).

Podcast host of Street Pricing, too.
Read 33 tweets

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