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Maserati Problem

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102 pointsjasonlbaptiste42 comments

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Come up with mock Ask HN "Maserati Problem" posts:

- Ask HN: How do I deal with picking the right chef for my startup?

- Ask HN: What is the best private airfield in the SF/Bay Area for the company jet?

- Ask HN: Can anyone from Google recommend Baer's for employee transportation?

- Ask HN: PS3 or XBox 360 in the break room?

- Ask HN: How do I let my wife know I've slept with my EA?

- Ask HN: Got Ramen Profitable. Then TGI Fridays Profitable. Then Prime House Profitable. Now French Laundry Profitable. What next?

Hookers and blow profitable of course.

The best kind.

There are some things, that if you're not doing from day one, you're unlikely to ever do.

Alinea Profitable. El Bulli Profitable. El Bulli in Spring Profitable.

Alinea surprisingly not that crazily-priced.

the tour + wine will easily run 500 a person, FWIW

Did it, with clients, my perception was about 200 less than that per person. Other restaurants, incl. some named here: much more expensive.

The wine selections, btw? Totally worth it. Made the meal. And I'm not a crazy wine person.

Are you sure you didn't have the tasting, rather than the tour?

If not, I'm confused, since the tour is $225, and then the wines are said to be nearly as much as the meal, so with tip, that would put it just about at $500 a person. Even with zero wine, it'd be $270 with service.

Also, I may spontaneously combust with envy.

I am 100% positive everyone had the tour. Dinner took SIX HOURS.

I am less positive about the pricing, but I remember a number that started with a "3", and I remember thinking "I am surprised that this is not the most expensive meal in Chicago". (I meant to communicate, "200 less than 500". Sorry!)

Don't be envious. Come work for us! We will take you to Alinea.

El Bulli is not actually that expensive for the meal itself ($250/person?), but it's impossible to get a reservation. Since they announced they will be closing and turning into a cooking school in 2012, it's basically impossible to get a reservation unless you Know Someone. Steve Jobs can get a table as a walk in, probably, but your average $10-50mm exit startup founder cannot.

From Wikipedia: "It accommodates only 8,000 diners a season, but gets more than two million requests."

It's also claimed that the restaurant loses money, so why not raise prices??

El Bulli is closed after this season. It books up a year in advance. It does indeed lose money, but it's a loss-leader for a larger Adria empire. Long story short, none of us are going to El Bulli.

Ask HN: How do I scale my mansion while minimizing the walking distance from one side to the other?

Fun fact: the Pentagon was designed as a solution to that problem (well, for an office building, not for a mansion).

- Ask HN: When I get invited to Larry and Sergei's xmas party, what should I wear?

Of equal importance:

- Ask HN: What should I have my chefs prepare for my dinner party with Larry and Sergie?

Should we acquire Google in an all-cash deal?

Ah, the infamous Bugatti Veyron problem

lol, quality.

Should I drive my Ferrari or my other Ferrari?

This is by definition not a Maserati Problem.

Ask HN: Got nothing to do this week. Anything good on TV?

Ask HN: I'm going on my first date with a real girl. But my only formal attire is a Red Voyager Star Trek uniform. Should I spend money on formal clothing, or will my Star Trek uni be reasonable?

It should be fine

Especially if she happens to be a Trekkie, too.

For formal occasions, wear your Starfleet Dress Uniform.

whichever one you wear

NOT THE RED ONE

There goes all the uniforms from Star Trek II to VI. :(

why??

I guess that would be the reason: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RedShirt

You are evil. That link just wasted five hours of my time. Every tvtropes link I run across does this to me.

What's an EA?

Executive assistant, I believe.

Ask HN: How do I get started as an angel investor?

Hilarious. We use it amongst ourselves, but I didn't realize Brian had actually submitted it to the Urban Dictionary.

I tend to use it as a blanket answer to questions about extreme scaling. It's a way to tell someone that they're focusing on a problem that is really not an issue at such an early stage of a startup.

Q: "Can Rails scale to 100 million unique visitors a month?" A: "That's a Maserati Problem. No matter what the answer, you'll be happy as hell to have that problem."

Note: This is the guy who submitted it: http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=brianculler

Used in context: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1275771

Flip side: Y2K was a Maserati problem in 1990.

Not exactly. By 1990 Y2K was an inevitability. However, the Maserati may never come.

Agreed but by the same token your company/software from 1990 would probably not be around in 2000.

I get the impression "Maserati problems" (not quibbling about the definition, but from a "should I care about this" stance) are those for which the cost of focusing on them now is greater in impact terms than leaving it until later.

Y2K was probably a Maserati problem at the time because if your software was going to be around for 10 years, the profits from it should easily cover the maintenance task of resolving the bug.

Or, as Martin Mull might put it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVfYos--B_c#t=02m17s

i'll take a Maserati problem anyday

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