Patrick McKenzie (patio11) is joined again by Byrne Hobart, writer of The Diff, for a follow up conversation about “whales” – and so much more – across the gaming, aviation, software, hospitality and fast food industries. Patrick and Byrne also discuss their writing process, knowledge management, and how they use AI tools.
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Full transcript available here: www.complexsystemspodcast.com/byrne-hobart-whales-miscellany

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Links:

• The Diff thediff.co
• Capital Gains capitalgains.thediff.co
• Byrne Hobart’s book Boom: Bubbles and the End of Stagnation
• Kongregate Presentation: 
  • Video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7SDByLlCHw)
  • Slides (https://blog.kongregate.com/dont-call-them-whales-f2p-spenders-and-virtual-value/)

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Twitter:

@patio11

@byrnehobart

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Timestamps:
(00:00 ) Intro
(00:45 ) Economics of video game currencies 
(02:56 ) Pricing strategies in mobile gaming 
(05:08 ) Monetization skew towards high-end players 
(08:08 ) VIP systems and casino host analogy 
(11:08 ) Whale behavior in casual games 
(15:03 ) Hyper-consuming outliers in other industries
(19:09 ) Sponsors: WorkOS | Check
(21:25 ) Hobbies and opportunity costs 
(23:01 ) Custom software for tech billionaires 
(26:30 ) Evolution of website development 
(29:55 ) Restaurant websites and delivery apps 
(40:17 ) McDonald's take rates
(44:59 ) Restaurant groups
(53:34 ) Tech company cafeterias and employee benefits 
(57:57 ) Google's business model and economic feedback loops 
(1:00:57 ) Early Google investment anecdote 
(1:02:16 ) Writing as a memory aid 
(1:04:46 ) Using ChatGPT for memory assistance 
(1:10:30 ) LLMs as writing and coding aids 
(1:13:34 ) Children's interaction with ChatGPT 
(1:18:11 ) Arguing with LLMs and using them for research 
(1:03:00 ) Wrap

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Complex Systems is part of the Turpentine podcast network. Turpentine also has a social network for top founders and execs: https://www.turpentinenetwork.com/