trvlngwlbry

Nice job! This is really slick. Have you considered other pricing models? One approach that comes to mind:

- Allow the user to use the full tool without ever having to sign-up. - Charge $3-5 for them to download it. Sign-up optional. - To prevent them from screenshotting it without paying, add a watermark that only gets removed once they've paid for the download.

I remember seeing a resume generator on HN many years ago that used this model (i.e. no sign up required/pay upon download), and I thought it was clever: 1) it breaks down the barrier to use that the sign up causes; 2) it gets people bought-in/proud of their beautiful cover and thus more likely to pay; 3) allows you to monetize one-time users. Meanwhile, you could also keep the monthly subscription for people who expect to use it a lot (designers, agencies, etc).

Thanks for sharing. Adding another podcast anecdote here — one that made me chuckle — from Scott Belsky in his interview on Tim Ferriss' podcast:

> I remember my father, as an orthopedic surgeon, when he was a resident, he was working in one of those crazy, New York City hospitals where people would come in with like overdoses and shooting wounds and stuff like that. And he was telling me that the most often kind of prescribed [medicine], especially on the psychiatric stuff that came in, was 100cc of Obecalp, which is, of course, "placebo" spelled backwards. And how as soon as someone would be like, "Obecalp, stat, 100cc," that would, suddenly, switch something in a lot of these patients’ minds, in terms of where they felt they were in their hope. And that always stuck with me.

I don't think it's fair to use that one small piece of Netflix lore as the counter example to the point of the article. I'd categorize Reed Hastings as having one of the more long-term views/strategies in tech and business in general, and he would be the first to say that Netflix became what it has become not because of the lightbulb moment, but because of the long slog they've endured to get where they are. Using that Netflix example comes across as clickbaity.

Not to mention, that particular Netflix myth has nothing to do with the importance of having a lightbulb moment. The point is to provide a north star for the company about the importance of always keeping the customer/user experience top of mind. By charging late fees that exceeded the value of a video, Blockbuster had lost sight of the customer experience, which contributed to Blockbuster's downfall. Meanwhile, maintaining its intense focus on the customer experience helped Netflix navigate what was an impressive shift from mailing DVDs to streaming video online.

No. If you read the comment you'll see that I'm not proposing that the slow drivers speed up -- but just that they get out of the passing lane. In fact, to your point about motorcycle safety, I'd encourage them to maintain their slow speed if that's where their comfortable, but just move to the right (when it's safe).

I've felt the same way about "slow as hell left lane campers" for years and thought that maybe — if states never did anything to fix it — there might be a commercial solution to fixing this.

The idea I came up with awhile ago was to build a network of motorcyclists willing to attach a sign to the back of their bike, that reads (something like), "You're causing traffic by being in this lane at your speed - please move to right as soon as it's safe to do so." The motorcyclists would make their way in front of the slow left-laner - so that the sign is visible to the slow poke - with the hopes of persuading them to move to the right lane.

Meanwhile, also on the sign would be instructions for the other drivers out there, who witness the value the motorcyclist provided, to send a little micropayment electronically to the motorcyclist as a thank you.

Maybe this takes the form of a grassroots DIY movement where the motorcyclists handle all this themselves, or maybe there's an opportunity for a company to exist that creates the signs and facilitates the micropayments - and in return takes a cut of each micropayment (a la Patreon).

Obviously this assumes that all this can be achieved safely and legally. Thorough testing would have to be done on that front.

Let me know if anyone wants to kick around this idea further - even if just for fun.

I love the GIF in the article and how it was copyrighted in 2000 about an event that would happen in 2017. I'm a reader/follower of N. N. Taleb and agree with him about how difficult it is to predict future events. And meanwhile, the conditions in space and the laws of physics allow for a model like this to be made with what seems to be a lot of precision. Can anyone speak to how accurate/precise that GIF model _could've been_ in 2000?

The video you linked to was interesting - thanks for sharing - but I didn't follow how that's related at all to self-driving cars driving around looking for parking. The video seems like more an example of what happens when individual households all own cars and don't carpool when taking their kids to school.

If the kids being dropped off at that school started using self-driving Uber Pools, then that video would be better described as "Welcome to your traffic jam of the past."

I read GP's last paragraph as distinguishing between the use of "disabled people" vs. "people with disabilities," rather than between the use of "disabled" (or words with the same root) vs. other words.

My company did some work for an organization that supported people with disabilities in the workforce. The client stressed the importance of the distinction between using "people with disabilities" as opposed to "disabled people," with the former being much preferred because - due to its structure - it puts the focus (i.e. the first word) on "people" rather than "disabled/disability".

One obvious exception is the very VC whose blog post you're commenting on. Fred seems to have the same qualities of "The Product VC," but has developed them despite not having exited a company before becoming a VC.

Side note: Two weeks ago, a friend told me that dogs turn their bodies to poop in a north-south axis. I couldn't believe it and couldn't believe that I hadn't noticed before. So this was a timely read.

The article begged the question for me: Does the biocompass come into play for humans? Does anyone know of any examples of cultural/tribal traditions/oral histories that suggest that humans can improve their wellbeing by being aware of Earth's magnetic fields for various tasks?

Building out both sides of a two-sided market is extremely hard. While this decentralized system might be appealing to drivers, Uber and Lyft have created such a great experience for riders, that I don't see a compelling reason for riders to move to this system -- even if moving to this system is as easy as downloading Arcade City. And without the riders, the drivers won't give it very long. That said, chicken-and-egg scenarios exist in every industry, and get hurdled all the time, so I'll be interested to watch how it goes for this one.

This stood out to me, too. On the one hand, hearing him say it is a little unnerving. On the other, it's oddly comforting to know that he truly believes we're in a race against the clock to save civilization, and that someone like him is doing everything they can to prevent the end of it (at least on the environmental front; he's probably nervous about other dangers, too, that he'd have less control over, e.g. geopolitics).

Seeing that reaction from him helps explain in my mind how he's been able to accomplish as much as he has. It really feels like he's a man on a mission and that he's going to run through walls to accomplish it.

Other comments have compared him to a politician. I think that's laughable. He has a consistent track record of 'doing.' Politicians have not earned that reputation.

The book Drive, by Daniel Pink, does a good job of explaining the differences between intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. I recommend the book regardless, but especially if this topic is intriguing to you.

> I doubt Google wants to be reliant on a third-party company with reputation problems to introduce these cars to the world.

This is a great point that may not be getting enough play in this conversation. You could easily imagine Larry being nervous that Uber won't not be evil (pardon the double negative). I know people can probably point to examples where Google has lost their way on the 'Don't Be Evil' front, but I'm sure it's still a big part of their decision-making process. I use Uber and love the experience, but you have to think there's some truth to the horrible reputation they're earning themselves; Uber doesn't scream 'Don't Be Evil' to me.

There's something funny (ironic?) in the fact that you consistently misspell the name of one of your Golden Goose countries (Colombia). I don't meant to sound like I'm sitting on a high-horse —- in fact I enjoyed reading your stories and always thought about trying passive income myself -- but it kind of epitomizes the situation: you made a lot of money marketing to a population from far away and far enough away that you're fuzzy on the name of the country to which you're marketing.

Again, I do appreciate you sharing the stories, and I hate to call out a spelling mistake like that. Just thought it had symbolism in this case.