Comment by roughly
5 years ago
I feel like there's basically two business models in the world - you can be a baker, in which you try to create a product that customers will want on its merits, and work to make the best possible customer experience, or you can be a crack dealer. I think a lot of people think they're bakers, but you gotta realize, the moment you start sprinkling crack in the cookies, you're not selling cookies anymore.
There's a family-run bakery near my house that specializes in cheesecakes. They make the best cheesecakes I've ever tasted. They only make a certain number (~200, say, I dunno really) per day, they always sell out, then they close for the day. Every year they take a two-month vacation. That's it. That's the whole business.
Anthony Mangieri was downtown for a few years here in SF before he went back East. https://www.unapizza.com/about I got to eat there one time. Sublime. Unbelievable. All he does all day every day is pizza.
Something like that (and a good accountant) and you're set for life, eh?
That’s the truth - and it’s a good life, too. Easy to sleep at night, at least.
Ed: man, I had that pizza too - it was hyped to the roof and I didn’t want to admit it, but damned if that wasn’t the best pizza in the city...
> sell out, then they close for the day. Every year they take a two-month vacation.
What is stopping their landlord from raising the rent, since they obviously have money to spare?
Principles? Morals? Ethics?
The small things preventing humanity from murdering, raping, enslaving, and torturing one another. It's easy to forget that these exist and that everyone must always be on guard, defending the world against ones own baser instincts and defending oneself against humanity at larges baser instincts. As we collectively forget, or consciously ignore, our duty to one another we mortgage humanities future with collective suffering today. Eventually the bill on these ills come due, one way or another the sociological debt is always repaid.
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Real estate prices depend on the market rate, not the buyer's wealth.
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Competition from other landlords
I like analogies, but I really don't think this one illuminates anything.
The US bread industry has been slowly jacking up the amount of sugar in their products for decades. That's because almost all large-scale food producers also want their product to be as addictive as crack. Maybe there are "bakers" who are more honest than that, but as a category I don't think there are enough to base a useful analogy on.
You could just work with the analogy, if you wanted.
"Food science" is all about engineering food to be addictive. Which, sure, it's what 'consumers want', but it isn't what people need.
The line between sprinkling MSG on corn chips fried in cheap seed oils, and sprinkling crack on cookies, is a fine one.
When I hear "baker" I picture a millennia-old activity carried out on a human scale. I don't picture an enormous factory churning out least-common-denominator starches, jacked up with sugar, seed oils, and dough conditioners.
Sure, they don't bake most of the bread. But that is clearly what OP was referring to, and you don't have to refuse to get their point.
Baker <--> Crack-dealer is a spectrum. But wherever you are on the spectrum, you always draw the line one step to the right.
It's not, though - that's the point. You're either a baker or you're a crack dealer - you don't get to be a baker that just sells a little crack, that's not how it works.
Isn't sugar a suitable substitute for crack?
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I think that shall have potential to become a proverb.
I work for a very reputable company who produces high-quality content serving vital public interest. We still use "user engagement" as a metric in a mostly positive way. But we also aim to have content "go viral" and breed daily habits and we promote our content heavily on social media. We still have to pay the bills.
Two business models in tech: selling a product vs. selling ads. The latter is really selling your users.
selling a product vs selling ads vs selling a feeling (dopamine hits)?
Some freemium games are clearly just trying to hit the dopamine center.
right, baker and crack dealer.
Can you give few examples "baker" products which have scaled to really large scale? I always see it as everybody starts as a baker but over time it becomes a sliding scale.
Apple hardware/software, Microsoft Windows, Intel hardware, Netflix (buffet TV shows), Amazon web store (logistics), Etsy store, Steam / GOG Games - all of these (except Netflix) are selling* either hardware or software, to you, once.
Netflix is a subscription to access and stream a lot of shows, but it is "fee for subscription service", not all that different from an alarm company subscription, OnStar, or a subscription lawn maintenance company.
* Ok, Steam / GOG Games or Microsoft Windows is a licensed use with limited conditions, it's not like you can use it on just any hardware
I would not put Netflix in this category as there has been extensive coverage on how they try to get as much time spent as possible. Autoplaying content at the end of one show is a prime example, and how that time was optimized down to be incredibly short.
Short version: Subscription retention and time spent correlate, so they still have the "crack dealer" model incentives.
Most large e-commerce sites including Etsy aren't bakers. They use recommendation engines, personalized site experiences, email marketing campaigns, discount coupons for repeat purchases, dark patterns, offsite re-targeting ads and so on to get you to buy and buy repeatedly.
edit: And the ever fun one of free shipping with a minimum order of X, great way to make you think you're getting a deal by giving them more money.
I'd consider the auto industry to be a "baker" industry (for the most part). Ikea's a "baker", GAP is a "baker". A lot of the pre-digital world made pure play baked goods.
>A lot of the pre-digital world made pure play baked goods.
Coupon codes on your receipt, planned obsolescence, strategic item placement in store to encourage buying additional or more expensive items, loyalty programs and points, physical marketing mailings, targeted pre-internet advertising, etc.
Careful with fashion. Fashion trends are manipulated to keep the dopamine flowing if and only if you update your wardrobe every season. All the magazines, shows, etc... it's not entirely innocent of the problems we're discussing.
To piggy back on this, is it possible to continue being a baker at scale without pricing most people out of your product?
i.e. is it possible to provide something like (internet search) or (social networking) that relies on a paid model? Not everyone who needs/uses google or facebook can afford an iPhone.