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Contact Ben Horowitz for $20

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Re: Contact Ben Horowitz for $20

#81

Post by smokey_the_bear »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #66
lastofus wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious what the fine level was relative to the income of the parents, and if the fine was viewed more as a convenience fee than a penalty. I'm thinking if the fine was raised to a high enough dollar amount, tardiness would again drop off, or at the very least, revenue would increase enough to justify hiring someone to stay late...

I don't think income plays into it. It converts the transaction of one of spending social capital (social mores, trust) to financial capital; social capital, IMHO, is harder to acquire, therefore far more valuable. Anyways, because you asked: http://rady.ucsd.edu/faculty/directory/gneezy/pub/docs/fine.... "It is true that a ‘‘large enough’’ fee would eventually reduce the behavior. For instance, many day-care centers…

The daycares my kids have gone to have all charged a moderate late fee, but said very explicitly that if you are habitually late, you will be kicked out of the daycare.

One of the daycares at 5:30 would just take the kids with her on her nightly errands, and you'd have to run all over town to find them at the grocery store or whatever.

These are both ways of making it clear that it is socially unacceptable to be late.

Re: Contact Ben Horowitz for $20

#82

Post by danso »

bhouston wrote: post #8

It may could encourage people to contact him more by giving them a form of permission: > To come to our surprising conclusion, Uri ran an experiment: Out of 10 daycare centers across Haifa, they randomly chose six and introduced a small fine for parents who showed up more than 10 minutes late in each of them. In day cares where the fine was introduced, parents immediately started showing up late, with tardiness level…

Sounds similar to the Catholic concept of "indulgences". Wonder if sinful actions increased considerably after people had a monetary way to avoid hell.

Re: Contact Ben Horowitz for $20

#83

Post by elastic_church »

Swizec wrote: post #33
treebeard901 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Incentives for behavior modification is always a fascinating area. In this case, the daycare was incentivized to track people being late more closely since they had a financial interest in doing so. I suspect the outcome was somewhere in the middle of more accurate record keeping and introducing the ability for the parents to pay off their guilt.

It also made the behavior socially acceptable. "So many people are late that we introduced a fine" "Oh phew, it's not just me. Everyone's doing it"

also turns into a cost benefit equation, instead of a mere cultural/etiquette one

Re: Contact Ben Horowitz for $20

#84

Post by ljoshua »

GavinMcG wrote: post #76
achompas wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surprised to see this q on HN of all places. He's a co-founder of arguably the most powerful VC in Silicon Valley. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Horowitz

What value does expressing your surprise add, here?

Not much, but the original question was a little severe in its tone as well. Let's all be happy folks! :)

Re: Contact Ben Horowitz for $20

#85

Post by notahacker »

adventured wrote: post #80
bhouston wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That works out to a hourly rate of $240/hour. That is a horrible for a VC, especially for one as successful as Ben.

Ten times that wouldn't be worth it, if it distracts from a single other important task. Assume $2400 / hour, six hours per day of effort on it, five days per week, 52 weeks per year. $3.7 million. It's a lot to a charity, it's not a lot versus his net worth and what he can do with his time at A16Z, against the distraction of writing emails for that effort every 5 minutes (which is why he won't continue with this lon…

Andreessen Horowitz put $25m into the B series for the company running this service, which puts a different complexion on the ROI he's hoping to get from answering a handful of emails in his free time...

tbh I wouldn't be that surprised if some of the companies willing to spend $20 to exchange emails with Ben Horowitz are actually worth his time replying to, especially if he has a PA he trusts to decide which emails are worth him having a look at.

Re: Contact Ben Horowitz for $20

#87

Post by notahacker »

btipling wrote: post #39

I wrote a lengthy question and signed up but at the payment screen it required a credit card. I would have preferred a third party service like PayPal. I am not inclined to enter my credit card information into random websites. I would have been happy to donate the $20 otherwise.

It's not that random, it's a startup which has raised over $100m, much of it from Andreessen Horowitz.

That said, it's a Bitcoin startup so it's weird if credit card really is the only accepted payment method.

Re: Contact Ben Horowitz for $20

#88

Post by FLGMwt »

bhouston wrote: post #8

It may could encourage people to contact him more by giving them a form of permission: > To come to our surprising conclusion, Uri ran an experiment: Out of 10 daycare centers across Haifa, they randomly chose six and introduced a small fine for parents who showed up more than 10 minutes late in each of them. In day cares where the fine was introduced, parents immediately started showing up late, with tardiness level…

It almost certainly does. He started at $5.

Re: Contact Ben Horowitz for $20

#89

Post by whack »

bhouston wrote: post #75
whack wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the experiment you mentioned, the fine is small enough, that it doesn't produce any significant revenues. The goal is to minimize the number of people who show up late. Imagine if the day-care made the "fine" high enough that they actually want people to show up late. Ie, think credit-card interest rates and late-payment fees. In that case, regardless of whether tardiness goes up-or-down, the daycare would win eit…

> That works out to a hourly rate of $240/hour. That is a horrible for a VC, especially for one as successful as Ben.

You got me. I don't know most startup celebrities, and had no idea that this guy was a billionaire. Boy do I feel silly now.

Re: Contact Ben Horowitz for $20

#90

Post by panic »

treebeard901 wrote: post #17
bhouston wrote: post #8

It may could encourage people to contact him more by giving them a form of permission: > To come to our surprising conclusion, Uri ran an experiment: Out of 10 daycare centers across Haifa, they randomly chose six and introduced a small fine for parents who showed up more than 10 minutes late in each of them. In day cares where the fine was introduced, parents immediately started showing up late, with tardiness level…

Incentives for behavior modification is always a fascinating area. In this case, the daycare was incentivized to track people being late more closely since they had a financial interest in doing so. I suspect the outcome was somewhere in the middle of more accurate record keeping and introducing the ability for the parents to pay off their guilt.

It presents a choice where there wasn't one before. Without the fine, most people wouldn't even consider choosing to be late. In general, people tend to choose from the options in front of them, so paying attention to the options you provide is very important.
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