My college roommate always had an impressive recall of the (many) academic sociology/philosophy books he'd read. Some of this is down to him having a gifted memory, but also some is due to his use of a generally applicable technique where he summarized each book he read into a single page, forcing re-engagement and consolidation.
Inspired by this, I'm experimenting with writing and posting online reviews of books I've read.
I worry somewhat about being so saturated in outside opinions that I no longer generate my own. It's much easier to scroll down in the nth reddit thread than think on my own.
Something I've found frustrating as of late is when a merchant isn't transparent about as much.
Case in point, I ordered an urgently needed textbook off Amazon and was disappointed to learn that the package ended up delayed at customs for numerous weeks. I felt somewhat violated.
i do wish that was move obvious (like eBay), or there was a way to automatically exclude results from abroad by default on all searches. bonus points for allowing me to specify some countries (like Japan) or exclude others. it wouldn't even impact Amazon's bottom line that much, as most people would never turn it on if it's opt-in
Just GA. Now that you mention it though, given all the pop-up blocking, my numbers are likely underestimated. I'll cross-reference with server logs next time.
re 6 vs. 150 subscribers. The trick to getting people to sign up is... (you are not going to like this)... a pop-up.
People on forums will complain about it.
People will sign up with fake and insulting email addresses to spite you. You may even get upset.
But my god will you gather emails from the people out there who actually care about the work you are doing.
But I am going to put the subscription form at least at the bottom of each post, and think of other ways to get it in front of people. I may consider a popup in the future if I put the work in to make sure people who are already subscribed generally don't see it. Like when they confirm their subscription, set a cookie that will block the popup. Something like that. Or a "don't show me this again" button. I didn't see a popup on your site FWIW.
EDIT: Or duh, just a URL param like show_popup=false in the notification email URL.
Anyway thanks for the feedback. I'm realizing now that I've read your posts in the past and really enjoyed them, so you have another subscriber!
With my popup, I try to wait to show it until a moment when I feel the visitor is actually interested. At first approximation, that's when they have been on the page more than 60 seconds and scrolled down more than 70%.
Like you mentioned, I also use cookies to ensure people who have already subscribed (or hit X on a previous pop-up) don't see it again.
And thanks for subscribing! I love these random encounters on HN.
Perhaps because the value of being in the valley, near customers, know-how, and investment, is worth the multiple (though I'd put the salary difference closer to 2.5x than 7x).
Reminds me of the Swedish system where one must queue for up to 20 years to get a contract for a rent-controlled apartment.[0]
i.e. like you said, if it isn't pricing keeping people out of the most desirable areas, it's some other mechanism, such as queues, migration barriers, etc. And analogously, waiting lists are used for operations in the public health system.
So yeah, it's either just pricing people out, or one of the other form of Communism which as we know, never ends well, because it is a market distortion, which reduces efficiency of everyone.
In a Soviet Union it wasn't even that bad because all of the country was Communist: whole economy being centrally planned, it made quite some sense for the Party to be able to decide who gets to live where, because without right cadres where you need them, how will you execute the Five Year Plan. Would be much worse to do the same in the system which is otherwise market-oriented. An SV startup has money but unable to hire workers locally because there are simply no slots for them to live here, are reserved.
WSJ takes huge legal risks in order to provide honest, ground-breaking reporting that makes society better. They were responsible, for example, for the Theranos exposé.
I misunderstood your text description and now I know exactly what you mean. It never occurred to me that people click outside the modal rather than on the "x". In retrospect it seems obvious that they would. Will fix.
Inspired by this, I'm experimenting with writing and posting online reviews of books I've read.