3 ms·

This really wasn't supposed to come across as harsh, and I'm really not down on myself, though thank you for the concern! I think the context of the word "incom

by flaque 6y ago

This really wasn't supposed to come across as harsh, and I'm really not down on myself, though thank you for the concern! I think the context of the word "incompetent" is what's doing it here. Maybe "effective" and "ineffective" would be better.

erosenbe0 6y ago
"So in order to continue Quirk, Quirk needed to make people feel worse for longer. " You really ought to say something else. I know you don't mean it, but some mental health professionals read that a little sideways. I get it -- the folks who have a need for sustained engagement with therapy were difficult to reach or require more intensive efforts or something. So why not say that?
- flaque 6y ago
  Hmm I agree, this isn't really what I meant. I was concerned we had a business model that treated success stories as failures (folks feeling better unsubscribing) and failures as successes. While we had some early success with folks, the overall direction we were going was getting worse, not better. It felt naive to assume that the forces of the business model wouldn't drive future us (or potentially people we hired) towards doing more bad than good, even though that wasn't what we wanted to do then. And so while we still had absolute control of the company and weren't blinded by a survival instinct, we pivoted.
  - erosenbe0 6y ago
    You're not incorrect at all. Your app can succeed. Maybe you just didn't know the secret of successful behavioral health businesses. If half your clients are not indigent then you're doing it wrong. I know -- this doesn't seem to make sense. Oh but it does, because the economic value of assisting a bipolar person hold down a job or helping some 12 year-old show up to school is much much higher than getting a suburban family to ratchet their anxiety down a notch, and value eventually drives revenues in various ways. Would be happy to chat about it sometime. Your new project is cool too, but honestly the impact of gathering healthcare data heretofore not previously available would be much higher.

by flaque 6y ago

erosenbe0 6y ago

"So in order to continue Quirk, Quirk needed to make people feel worse for longer. " You really ought to say something else. I know you don't mean it, but some mental health professionals read that a little sideways. I get it -- the folks who have a need for sustained engagement with therapy were difficult to reach or require more intensive efforts or something. So why not say that?

flaque 6y ago
Hmm I agree, this isn't really what I meant. I was concerned we had a business model that treated success stories as failures (folks feeling better unsubscribing) and failures as successes. While we had some early success with folks, the overall direction we were going was getting worse, not better. It felt naive to assume that the forces of the business model wouldn't drive future us (or potentially people we hired) towards doing more bad than good, even though that wasn't what we wanted to do then. And so while we still had absolute control of the company and weren't blinded by a survival instinct, we pivoted.
- erosenbe0 6y ago
  You're not incorrect at all. Your app can succeed. Maybe you just didn't know the secret of successful behavioral health businesses. If half your clients are not indigent then you're doing it wrong. I know -- this doesn't seem to make sense. Oh but it does, because the economic value of assisting a bipolar person hold down a job or helping some 12 year-old show up to school is much much higher than getting a suburban family to ratchet their anxiety down a notch, and value eventually drives revenues in various ways. Would be happy to chat about it sometime. Your new project is cool too, but honestly the impact of gathering healthcare data heretofore not previously available would be much higher.