4 ms·

Hence the old joke about having a Ph.D. being most useful when you have to write a letter to your bank.

by frossie 16y ago

patio11 16y ago
Speaking of which: a long time ago, I worked at an office supply company and had the privilege of attending a lecture by a guy who had made selling paper his life's work. I send maybe two or three paper letters a year, and if they're designed to go to a human being I always write them on paper which screams I Am The King Of Papers. (I didn't believe such a thing existed, but try putting one sheet of it on a table with 40 sheets of assorted office paper. Anybody can pick it out, instantly, from several feet away.) It costs about $15 for less than a ream and is usually sold as something like "resume paper" (300 sheets -- a ream is 500, a carton is 10 reams, and a carton of generic office paper should cost around $30 ~ $40). One pack will last you about a decade. For those of us in the Internet generation, if you have a call to send someone paper, that probably means you are doing Serious Business. The ROI on influencing Serious Business is just astounding.
- aberkowitz 16y ago
  Resume paper sounds like the Monster Cable of paper.
  - barrkel 16y ago
    I don't think that's an accurate analogy. It doesn't matter what your digital cables are made of, so long as noise doesn't go above the threshold. Cheap copier paper, on the other hand, looks and feels like crap. The only reason you print stuff on paper is to communicate with another human being, and the paper is part of the message. I wouldn't quite go as far as the business cards scene in American Psycho (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoIvd3zzu4Y http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoIvd3zzu4Y) though.
  - jrockway 16y ago
    In the sense that Monster Cable is printing money, and cotton paper ("resume paper") is what the government prints money on?
  - chc 16y ago
    Only if the intended recipient of your document is an HDMI port. HDMI ports don't care about what you give them as long as it fits and transmits the correct data. Humans are somewhat more subjective and have emotional responses to things, and it's in your interset to influence those responses to work in your favor.
  - aberkowitz 16y ago
    In order to determine the value of resume paper over "regular" copy paper, I will go out and buy some this week to evaluate.

Hence the old joke about having a Ph.D. being most useful when you have to write a letter to your bank.

by frossie 16y ago

Hence the old joke about having a Ph.D. being most useful when you have to write a letter to your bank.

Speaking of which: a long time ago, I worked at an office supply company and had the privilege of attending a lecture by a guy who had made selling paper his life's work. I send maybe two or three paper letters a year, and if they're designed to go to a human being I always write them on paper which screams I Am The King Of Papers. (I didn't believe such a thing existed, but try putting one sheet of it on a table with 40 sheets of assorted office paper. Anybody can pick it out, instantly, from several feet away.) It costs about $15 for less than a ream and is usually sold as something like "resume paper" (300 sheets -- a ream is 500, a carton is 10 reams, and a carton of generic office paper should cost around $30 ~ $40). One pack will last you about a decade. For those of us in the Internet generation, if you have a call to send someone paper, that probably means you are doing Serious Business. The ROI on influencing Serious Business is just astounding.

aberkowitz 16y ago
Resume paper sounds like the Monster Cable of paper.
- barrkel 16y ago
  I don't think that's an accurate analogy. It doesn't matter what your digital cables are made of, so long as noise doesn't go above the threshold. Cheap copier paper, on the other hand, looks and feels like crap. The only reason you print stuff on paper is to communicate with another human being, and the paper is part of the message. I wouldn't quite go as far as the business cards scene in American Psycho (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoIvd3zzu4Y http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoIvd3zzu4Y) though.
- jrockway 16y ago
  In the sense that Monster Cable is printing money, and cotton paper ("resume paper") is what the government prints money on?
- chc 16y ago
  Only if the intended recipient of your document is an HDMI port. HDMI ports don't care about what you give them as long as it fits and transmits the correct data. Humans are somewhat more subjective and have emotional responses to things, and it's in your interset to influence those responses to work in your favor.
- aberkowitz 16y ago
  In order to determine the value of resume paper over "regular" copy paper, I will go out and buy some this week to evaluate.