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This is potentially a real effect, but in this case, the exact unit economics will determine exactly how much it matters.

Thanks to a focus on software and automation where we can afford it without hurting the experience, it's been good enough so far where we haven't noticed this affecting our decision making yet.

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"Potentially a real effect" meaning almost the definition of a principal-agent problem and a well-known problem in real estate. If you want to prevent it from happening (and I'm not saying that you do) you will have to try very hard, not just assume that it will happen.

You're right - my language was too dismissive. The general idea of what I said above is still valid though.

Another point: the cost per student does not increase linearly with time. Instead, advising becomes significantly more efficient after we've already taught the student our core insights. This means we're much more willing to spend additional time on students the more time we've already spent.

In contrast, houses can't "learn" how to sell themselves like a student can, so real estate agent costs are linear with time spent.

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