I can read and catch up on many group text messages very quickly but having to go through dozens of voice messages sounds much more time consuming, even if you can choose faster speeds.
Plus, unless you're a superb on the spot thinker or on a rip that day, it can be hard to express longer thoughts in one shot and having to rerecord is also not appealing. With text, you can edit it easily.
You might find the research about sensory processing sensitivity interesting.
"Theory and research suggest that sensory processing sensitivity (SPS), found in roughly 20% of humans and over 100 other species, is a trait associated with greater sensitivity and responsiveness to the environment and to social stimuli. Self-report studies have shown that high-SPS individuals are strongly affected by others' moods, but no previous study has examined neural systems engaged in response to others' emotions."
That may be the reality, but I don't believe that was the narrative then, or common knowledge now. Certainly I wasn't aware of that, although I'm also not too particularly invested in it so don't follow things that closely.
It certainly was the narrative then. I was in college at the time and there were weeks where Linda Tripp was mentioned more than Monica.
I got the direct impression from the news that Monica Lewinsky was this pretty young thing, very innocent, who had a tryst with the POTUS and was freaking out. Linda Tripp came along and under a false veneer of sophistication and helpfulness, instructed Monica on what to do, move-by-move.
The story was of an ingenue who was, in turn, under the thrall of the POTUS and then Linda Tripp.
> But, no, the main constraint on MoviePass’s growth seems to have been the actual production of plastic prepaid credit cards, which it couldn’t print fast enough:
Given how much money they were losing, it wasn't possible use digital cards that could be added to phone wallets? Or am I missing something here?
Yes, the primary way to use the service was with a MoviePass credit card. From the theater's point of view, it was just a regular credit card. MoviePass eventually wanted to move to direct ticketing, but they made enemies of the major theater chains do their aggressive and unsustainable business model.
Something that I found works well is just emailing influential people who you think would really benefit from your product and asking them for feedback. Since you're not selling your product, people (even busy ones) do reply. If you built a good product, they will keep using it (and maybe even tell other people about it) and if there are kinks that need to be ironed out, that's great to know as well.
This is apparently how Ilya from Datanyze got his first customer. He cold emailed Ben (then vice president at KISSmetrics) asking for feedback (https://artofemails.com/cold-emails#feedback).
Something I've noticed is a lot of companies use user onboarding and educational messages as a crutch for confusing UX and product experiences.
Many companies also have a one-size-fits-all approach to onboarding, where they send the same messages to all users, regardless of their in-product actions. Instead, it's better to trigger relevant messages if the user has taken a specific action and hasn't taken the next step to achieve Y result.
You can always send onboarding sequence to users who haven't taken any actions at all.
It should also be noted that for some established companies, a lot of their onboarding isn't necessarily to educate you but to force you to take certain actions that their testing has shown will make you active. For example, Pinterest forces you to follow certain topics when you sign up.
People buy based on recognizable brand names because it signals you're able to afford something in that price range and know "what's cool".
What's interesting is that some luxury brands's true high end lines are not really profitable (example: haute couture) and are actually supported by the brand's entry level "premium mediocre" products like canvas bags, perfumes, etc. In a way, the true luxury products acts as a marketing expense to bolster brand cachet, so their entry level products are coveted by the masses as status symbols.
What works for me is being able to toggle between a few different projects that requires slightly different skills and tasks. If I get stuck or tired of one, I can toggle to another project and still accomplish something.
Something else that works for me is letting go the guilt when I don't feel like something something (that's not urgent or time sensitive). If I'm not in the mood, I take a long break and allow myself to properly enjoy it without the guilt. This usually restores my motivation.
@csallen could probably jump in with some interesting insights. His site Indie Hackers was generating $5K a month from ad rev before it was acquired by Stripe (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14090063).
He actively reached out to relevant companies to ask them to place ads on his website.
If you brokered these type of ad partnerships, you could easily make a few thousand with your audience.
Ad types include: send a targeted email promo to users based on their analytics data, ads on the pages, etc.
I mentioned this in another post, but I believe this is how most seriously profitable bloggers make their money. They don't go for Google ads, they go for affiliate deals and sponsorship.
It's a smarter way to do it because the adverts are usually far far more relevant to the audience. Nothing annoys me more than generic clickbait advertising ("Release your equity!", "What did these 10 people do to get rich?", etc) which I'm never going to click on. On the other hand if I see a food blog sponsored by e.g. KitchenAid, I might have another look at their mixers.
If you have the readership and a trusting community (or reputation), it's a no brainer. This is how Daring Fireball does it too.
Affiliate links are another good way of subtly making cash - look at people like Ken Rockwell, who was once the de facto "Nikon Guy". His site was (is?) the go to place for Nikon camera/lens reviews. There are no ads on his site, but every damn link is affiliated (and why not?). This is also a very sneaky way for airline reward bloggers to make tons of points: they find the deals, everyone goes through the affiliate links and earns their meager 100 avios, while the blogger makes a tidy referral profit. The guy who runs Head for Points [1] made thousands when the Curve Card was released.
Plus, unless you're a superb on the spot thinker or on a rip that day, it can be hard to express longer thoughts in one shot and having to rerecord is also not appealing. With text, you can edit it easily.