Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Want to meet people, try charging them for it?

notes.eatonphil.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 93 posts

Re: Want to meet people, try charging them for it?

#71

Post by 4b11b4 »

gwbas1c wrote: post #69
rpastuszak wrote: post #55

OK, this is a very interesting post for me because in the past 5 years I've met 200+ people via my Say Hi page: https://untested.sonnet.io/notes/say-hi/ and many of my speakers suggested that I should charge for the calls. Many of my calls involve tech/product advice (often from people with a ton of experience in other areas, e.g. ex FAANG managers, already accomplished founders, designers). Many of the people who me…

> I enjoy serendipitous interactions with beautifully weird people Gosh, I wish I could articulate that into words when I was younger. I remember having a fun conversation with a batshit insane lady who walked into a porch party, and one of my friends thought that I actually thought she was sane.

I'm also liable to think insane people might be sane

Re: Want to meet people, try charging them for it?

#72

Post by bell-cot »

verbify wrote: post #56
jpalomaki wrote: post #26

It's a similar as described in Freakonomics book. Daycare was annoyed with parents picking up their kids late. They introduced a fee for this. As a result, late pick ups increased. Something that was not considered to be socially acceptable, became more acceptable when you put a price tag for it.

Clearly the fine wasn't high enough.

Was the actual goal to stop the behavior? Or to cover their staffing & overhead costs for the extra time?

Re: Want to meet people, try charging them for it?

#73

Post by gametorch »

wodenokoto wrote: post #9

This reminds me of video that went simi viral a decade or so back. Not sure how much of it was staged, but the creators went to a public place and stood next to some “free hugs”-people and then put up a sign “Premium hugs $1” and apparently collected more hugs to the chargrin of the free-huggers.

This is also known as "Lamborghini Economics"

Higher price => higher demand, seemingly paradoxically

Re: Want to meet people, try charging them for it?

#74

Post by Workaccount2 »

HPsquared wrote: post #14
wodenokoto wrote: post #9

This reminds me of video that went simi viral a decade or so back. Not sure how much of it was staged, but the creators went to a public place and stood next to some “free hugs”-people and then put up a sign “Premium hugs $1” and apparently collected more hugs to the chargrin of the free-huggers.

If it's free, people are suspicious and judge the cost to be something implicit, generally with a higher expected cost than $1. On the other hand if you make the cost explicit, people are more comfortable. It ties in with the story in Freakonomics about the daycare that started to charge a small "fine" to discourage parents picking up the child late, with the effect that these incidents happened more often. Because t…

I wish this model worked for the internet so we were stuck with the current shitty ad model. Charging money is the fastest way to tank engagement with your content.

Re: Want to meet people, try charging them for it?

#76

Post by card_zero »

rpastuszak wrote: post #55

OK, this is a very interesting post for me because in the past 5 years I've met 200+ people via my Say Hi page: https://untested.sonnet.io/notes/say-hi/ and many of my speakers suggested that I should charge for the calls. Many of my calls involve tech/product advice (often from people with a ton of experience in other areas, e.g. ex FAANG managers, already accomplished founders, designers). Many of the people who me…

The symbolist doodle illustrating that is great. The freaked-out worm in the top hat is being followed by a black cloud of anxiety, and it wants to eat him for dinner. The other worm, in a bowler and dark glasses (probably indicating modesty and chill), is supplying support and a pat on the back.

Re: Want to meet people, try charging them for it?

#77

Post by mmarian »

Hmm, interesting. I launched a blog a few months' back; one of the reasons was to talk to people about things I care about which, in my case, involves the struggles of launching a bootstrapped startup.

I put a link to my linkedin and a contact form, just for that. No one contacted me. But funnily enough, when I speak to people they often tell me they've read my blog. And I'd like to think that I'm pretty good at giving startup advice - mostly thanks to my failures and a podcast that I've been listening to.

Might end up trying this.

Re: Want to meet people, try charging them for it?

#78

Post by rorylaitila »

mmarian wrote: post #77

Hmm, interesting. I launched a blog a few months' back; one of the reasons was to talk to people about things I care about which, in my case, involves the struggles of launching a bootstrapped startup. I put a link to my linkedin and a contact form, just for that. No one contacted me. But funnily enough, when I speak to people they often tell me they've read my blog. And I'd like to think that I'm pretty good at givi…

I've found the number of people that read my work vs interact is greater than 100 to 1. Similarly to you I get a lot of feedback IRL. Some people consider me 'prolific' within my small network, even though it feels like there is often no engagement at all. It's not easy to measure the true effect you have!

Re: Want to meet people, try charging them for it?

#79

Post by noname120 »

rpastuszak wrote: post #55

OK, this is a very interesting post for me because in the past 5 years I've met 200+ people via my Say Hi page: https://untested.sonnet.io/notes/say-hi/ and many of my speakers suggested that I should charge for the calls. Many of my calls involve tech/product advice (often from people with a ton of experience in other areas, e.g. ex FAANG managers, already accomplished founders, designers). Many of the people who me…

Paying ⇒ customer ⇒ expectations

Re: Want to meet people, try charging them for it?

#80

Post by ericmcer »

I have been on the other end of this. I have a few Spanish tutors I pay ~$10 to chat with for 30m sessions. It is nice creating a dynamic where you can shamelessly talk about yourself without worry, because you are paying.

In the rest of life I usually am the captive audience (kids, wife, etc.) and put my own stuff on the back burner. The author is questioning why people would pay, but it is nice to curate a conversation that is intentionally one-sided, otherwise if you contact him the onus is on you to make it worth his time.

Post reply on HN