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The Cost of Free Doughnuts: 70 Years of Regret

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Re: The Cost of Free Doughnuts: 70 Years of Regret

#311

Post by apatters »

user5994461 wrote: post #305
apatters wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not convinced. Even if only one person at the company has access to support, he's going to have more people asking him to submit tickets about their problems when there are 2,000 users vs 100.

This doesn't happen in practice because the 1900 more employees do not know who is that person and couldn't figure it out even if their life depended on it. If you've worked in any large organization, above one thousand employees, doesn't matter how many above really. For any specific system, there are often only 1-3 people who are familiar with it and have access and would be willing to touch it. There will be a few…

Very interesting insights

Re: The Cost of Free Doughnuts: 70 Years of Regret

#312

Post by ptorrone »

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #310
yoshyosh wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty cool concept you should write more about this. Do you have any other examples of companies that give away their IP but still thrive in the physical or digital world? Will definitely check out Prusa Research. I've always wondered if a restaurant could be built upon a similar concept, teaching people how to recreate it's foods but being so cheap and accessible that the cost of creating it yourself outweighs just…

Thank you! Yes actually Sparkfun Electronics was the first company I noticed that followed this pattern. They are essentially a hardware company that gives most or all of their product's IP away. I remember this blog post made it very clear that very open source hardware companies could thrive: https://www.sparkfun.com/news/599 The internal side of their business is was built on open source software, which is a good…

hi taylor, adafruit's products are open-source, all the board files are on github, check the open hardware certification listing with adafruit, which is currently the most certified (329 out of 783 certifications, are from adafruit) https://certification.oshwa.org/list.html?q=adafruit

"cheap office space" is not a factor in our decision to be an open-source hardware company.

Re: The Cost of Free Doughnuts: 70 Years of Regret

#313

Post by TaylorAlexander »

ptorrone wrote: post #312
TaylorAlexander wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you! Yes actually Sparkfun Electronics was the first company I noticed that followed this pattern. They are essentially a hardware company that gives most or all of their product's IP away. I remember this blog post made it very clear that very open source hardware companies could thrive: https://www.sparkfun.com/news/599 The internal side of their business is was built on open source software, which is a good…

hi taylor, adafruit's products are open-source, all the board files are on github, check the open hardware certification listing with adafruit, which is currently the most certified (329 out of 783 certifications, are from adafruit) https://certification.oshwa.org/list.html?q=adafruit "cheap office space" is not a factor in our decision to be an open-source hardware company.

Okay good to know thank you! Somehow I recall finding some products whose source files were not listed next to the schematics, but maybe that was a while ago.

Re: The Cost of Free Doughnuts: 70 Years of Regret

#314

Post by tripzilch »

mormegil wrote: post #156
karaterobot wrote: post #69

I didn't know about the Red Cross and its donuts. The example I've always used for this is helping a friend move. If the friend asks "hey, will you help me move? I'm buying pizza and beer afterwards!" I will more than likely say yes, even though I can buy my own pizza and beer. If they instead say "hey, will you help me move? I'll pay you $21.58 for your time," I'd probably bristle. Even though that might be the equi…

Also, there is this case of a daycare center which started to collect fines for late child pickups. The result? The rate of late pickups increased. Picking the child late stopped being a shameful thing to do, causing the poor worker to wait for you, it started being a normal paid service you could use every time you wanted. https://freakonomics.com/2013/10/23/what-makes-people-do-wha...

Even more interesting, and relevant to this discussion, was that the rate didn't decrease again (within the measured time frame) after the fine was removed again! (from the paper linked in your article)

Re: The Cost of Free Doughnuts: 70 Years of Regret

#315

Post by hvasilev »

Same is with Free Software. On one hand it is nice that you are receiving so much value for free, on the other all business models revolving around it contradict basic sales principles and are wildly unsuccessful.

So for example, I use horrible debuggers like GDB in 2020, because there is no company that is willing to put that much effort and take that much of a risk into developing a better tool debugger, since there are no profit incentives around it. You cannot really expect developers to pay for their tools in 2020 and that is both good and bad.

Re: The Cost of Free Doughnuts: 70 Years of Regret

#316

Post by krustyburger »

marktangotango wrote: post #217
krustyburger wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not being able to see the contents, customers probably assumed there was something more valuable in there than promotional items. I doubt many of them bought more than one grab bag. I think Diamond (the distributor) frowns on stores selling items that were meant to be given away for free. To be honest, the owner doesn’t sound like the most reputable guy.

Iirc there was always at least one old comic in these grab bags, and this was 30+ years ago so it was silver age, and the bags were transparent. I just thought it was a cool story, have mercy internet stranger! This person was around 23, spent his inheritance buying the store from a WW 2 vet and was out of business within a year.

If the bag was clear that makes a big difference and means I was wrong to assume something was afoot.

I remember going to lots of different comic shops as a kid and even through young eyes it was obvious that some of the owners were fairly shady. I’m sorry for projecting that onto your story. Sorry to hear it didn’t work out for him; that sounds like it must have been a rough experience.

Re: The Cost of Free Doughnuts: 70 Years of Regret

#317

Post by LukeShu »

WorldMaker wrote: post #177
LukeShu wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Growing up in Indiana: I don't remember much about different theme parks, but I remember that I'd always end the day dehydrated and thirsty--but not at Holiday World. And regardless of the actual amount of money, as a kid it removed friction from getting a drink, I didn't have to go ask my parents for money. (Just drink for free from the water fountain! Sure, maybe as an adult, but it's definitely easier for kid-me t…

I've got my own biases [1], but Kings Island has always been a bigger/better park than Holiday World, but yes that free soft drink package makes a lot of sense on why it would be more appealing to all sorts of families regardless of whether the park is better or not overall. [1] I worked food service at Kings Island for a summer and a half way back in High School.

For fun, I asked my mom if she remembers why we went to Holiday World more. She mentioned the free sunscreen (she didn't remember the free soft drinks[1]), and said that Kings Island was too crowded.

[1] and I hadn't remembered the free sunscreen until I read the parent post.

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