jeffyee

Yes, nobody is disagreeing with physics. But a discussion about weight gain/loss that always has people saying "calories in = calories out" is like a discussion of every business saying "well profit = revenue - expenses". Obvious but not helpful. The interesting thing is discussing how to modify those variables.

I recently found one of these in a car's glove box and couldn't believe it implied it was a "Get out of jail free" card. Even seems to imply it has an expiration date given the years written on it.

Here's a picture of it: https://imgur.com/a/0TpcY

Obviously these services are useful and can save you time now, but they are, generally speaking, rather expensive. That means you end up saving less and probably will be working for more years rather than retiring early.

I think it's a fallacy to think these "saved hours" translate directly into additional paid work. Most of the folks using these services are in salaried jobs, and don't benefit financially by working an extra few hours a week.

I saw "Ratio" by Ruhlman mentioned below, but also wanted to mention "The Flavor Bible". Technique is half of the battle, and flavor combination is the other. The Flavor Bible is basically a encyclopedia for food combinations. Look up a food and see what goes well with it. Eg apples go well with cinnamon, pork, and nuts. It's based on interviews with chefs, but I've also built a version myself with recipe ingredient analysis.

There's scientific analysis that can be done on flavor compounds in foods as well to find complementary flavors, foodpairing.com is working on this.

Is Uber more disruptive because of its experience or the fact that it technically violates the rules/regulations in the taxi cab market? Cabs can't compete on price because, the prices are regulated and fixed, and of the cost of medallions and compliance etc are non-zero. Similar remarks for the hotel industry and AirBnB.

Can this/should this be done in other markets? If someone built an equity crowdfunding platform that ignores SEC rules (and the JOBS act) but investors like it/use it, would it succeed? In the cases of Aereo and Silkroad, they didn't succeed in fighting the laws.

The rules and regulations exist ostensibly to "protect" consumers, but we see that when consumers don't agree with them, huge companies get created.

I haven't tried Munchery since I live outside SF, but I'm surprised the food tastes good reheated. I've never had restaurant leftovers taste very good, particularly in the proteins where the moisture loss in heat/cool/reheat is significant. And the presentation ends up looking more like a TV dinner than the plated dinner shown on the website.

Does the perception around the chef/dishes contribute more to the positive experience than the actual taste of the food?

Working on addressing 'Food and Cooking', would love to get your feedback. Send me a note, email in profile

I've read all of the comments and believe the consensus is basically:

- It's a lot cheaper for ebay/paypal to let the scammers rip off people than it is to go after them, even when the facts clearly identify the scammer

- Casual sellers are both less able to detect fraud and are more greatly impacted by it

- The feedback mechanism is insufficient "insurance" against fraud

- "Seller protection" and "Buyer protection" are not suitable insurances against the kind of fraud that actually occurs

- The vast majority of transactions are legitimate

- The selling prices on ebay can be substantially higher than Gazelle/Amazon, or other reputable channel

- Fraud will undoubtedly occur in some cases

How about if a 3rd party sold real buyer or seller insurance? They would be in the business of identifying scam-like behaviour from buyers/sellers, help you to avoid fraud it can detect, and ultimately insure you from loss. Not sure how much the premium would need to be in order to make this work, but seems like an interesting idea.

A big problem with casual selling on ebay is you don't know what you don't know until you've already been screwed. I sold some iTunes gift cards and provided the redemption code from the card after I received payment. We both left positive feedback for each other (he already had 18 feedback).

A month or so later, the buyer put a chargeback on their credit card, got their money back from paypal, and I had no recourse. Worse still, Paypal charged ME $50 more because of the chargeback! Despite my sending them the code (which they requested, and through ebays messaging system), I had to have delivery confirmation from a shipper to prove I sent it. Even though they have the messages proving the delivery/receipt, too bad for me. I tried calling paypal, and that got nowhere. They said something like "sorry, it will cost $200 to investigate the chargeback further, so it's probably not worth it". I told them I'd write it off to my not understanding their policy on "seller protection", but at least do something about the scammers account. Of course they said they couldn't, nor could the refund any of the fees.

So now I'm out the $30 for my item, $50 more because paypal incurred a chargeback, plus ebay fees, plus the guy got positive feedback and went on to do this to other people! Totally incredulous.

Instead of blogging about it though, I've decided to build a company to compete with ebay. Wish me luck =)

I think the key points are to align incentives, provide authenticity, and make it opt-in.

Dropbox and Groupon align everyone's incentives by offering benefits to both parties and acquiring customers at a much lower cost than traditional ads. They provide authenticity because the folks referring their friends are genuinely using their products.

Many consumers now frown upon affiliate marketing because they feel taken advantage of--the affiliates say whatever they think you want to hear in order to get you to buy, and some make an awful lot of money doing it.

Plaxo was perceived very negatively because they were inviting their user's contacts without their permission.

The book "The Ultimate Question" contends that asking "How likely is it that you would recommend this company to a friend or colleague?" is the single most important metric you should measure in your business. Thus, if you find that you have to offer too large of an incentive to your customers, you should instead focus on improving your product.

We're building a social referral platform right now with these factors in mind that will make it super easy to run different referral programs and find what's best for your business. We're focusing on eCommerce now, but are getting into SaaS and other services very soon.

Send us a note at hello _at_ curebit.com if you're interested in piloting with us.

I'm currently working on a prototype for an tool that will allow for simultaneous browser testing and assistance with detecting page layout problems, if you're interested in hearing more, drop me a line at bcompare at gmail. In developing my prototype, I'd love to get some of your sites to test it against.