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Hey Patrick, thanks so much for your honesty in all of this. It's never easy talking about things that embarrass us. Not to mention in public. You'll probably get some haters, but just know that I look forward to your annual updates and they have encouraged me to quit my job and start my own software business too. This has been one of the best decisions of my life. I'm sure there are many more here who can say the same thing. So, to you good sir, thank you.

What are the implications of this?

It also becomes a legitimate problem that a rich innovators become interested in solving. Nothing wrong with that.

Why hasn't this been done?

A decent product is just entry to the game. It sounds like what made pipedrive successful is AppSumo.

maybe this is more an argument for taking notes while you read rather than just reading.

What are some good applications of game theory? Where is it used usefully in the real world?

Maybe he'll write essays on being a good parent. Sort of like a being a good startup founder, and likely just as counter-intuitive.

Geez, for all that stress and risk, you might as well start a company.

For me there are certain mental calculations that take longer to process than others. 2 + 2 is super easy. 7+8 is not as immediate. I need a program like this that learns which calculation take me longer, even if it's just slightly longer, and then drills and drills my weak points over and over again. That would be a real mental math trainer.

Thanks so much for this. I've been trying to figure out how to create some sort of automated discount like this for a while now without success. Your sales funnel is actually very sophisticated. Do you think infusionsoft is the best automation tool to implement something like this?

Does the end of your sales funnel have some sort of scarcity built into it? Or are you basically just linking out to the sales page, to an always available book/course?

What sort of conversion rate do you get on this funnel?

I bought one of your courses a while ago. nice work!

This should be in every econ 101 textbook.

At first this was surprising, but those questions aren't as hard as they are making them out to be.

I think it depends on the job. Believe it or not, there are a lot of small and medium sized businesses that prefer this over someone coming out of a university with an actual degree. You are self-motivated, curious, and would come with a cheaper price tag since you don't have a degree. You'd also be less likely to quit for greener pastures.

How do you stop a competitor from making a fake offer just to get a look into how you do things?

I took a bunch of CS classes a few years ago so I could build a software product. Now it's built and launched with paying customers and I have a real developer who has taken over coding. However, I've noticed that my own programming skills have lapse. I guess if you don't use it you lose it. Something like this might just be helpful for retaining hard won skills. Thanks!

Is this legal?

I honestly don't know why this isn't already built into HN.

To quote Paul Graham on why we need rich people (like Larry Page):

"You need rich people in your society not so much because in spending their money they create jobs, but because of what they have to do to get rich. I'm not talking about the trickle-down effect here. I'm not saying that if you let Henry Ford get rich, he'll hire you as a waiter at his next party. I'm saying that he'll make you a tractor to replace your horse."

If it's so bad, why aren't people moving out of the valley?

It's like trying to figure out a new mission after you've already taken over the world. What the heck comes after that?

Pretty awesome watching these guys grow. I also love how they question the norm in the VC/startup world of being poor until you hit a real homerun. You only get one life. Don't let a VC dictate how you live it just so they can hit their IRR projections.

I'm curious, have you ever thought about why building a startup with more revenues and more "impact" seems to matter more than building smaller companies? I know this is a bit philosophical, but I'd be interested in hearing how you think about this.

What advice do you have for founders working on non world-changing ideas, but rather ideas more like your first 3 small ideas?

Do you think you had to go through those first few small wins in order to finally take a swing at a homerun? What changed when you did treehouse vs those other smaller businesses? Was it the fact that you didn't need to worry about money in the short-term anymore (because of those small exits), or something else?

"Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful." - Warren Buffet

Can you define what "matters"? What exactly are people finding more meaningful about programming as opposed to English?