4 ms·

In "An Evening Waster With Tom Lehrer" he chats a little between songs and tells a short story about someone who becomes a doctor: "He soon became a specialist,

In "An Evening Waster With Tom Lehrer" he chats a little between songs and tells a short story about someone who becomes a doctor: "He soon became a specialist, specializing in diseases of the rich. He was therefore able to retire at an early age". "Diseases of the rich" has always seemed like a useful metaphor for one way to decide on what product you are going to build. Does it heal a "disease" of the "rich"?

robertlagrant 1y ago
For a software person, you should heal a "disease" of the many if you want to maximise money, as they scale better than almost anything else. But for a doctor, who can only treat a limited number of patients, you should spend your time treating rich patients if you want to maximise money.
- reverendsteveii 1y ago
  idk, in the age of social media I'd argue that most of the money being made on the internet is being made inducing diseases of the many
- wmanley 1y ago
  Depends on willingness to pay - Even if your cost per customer is 0 maximising profit would mean that it’s better (for you) to sell 10 licences for £1,000,000 a pop to rich customers who really need the service rather than 500,000 licences for £1. It’s a shame because those 500,000 miss out on your product even though it would cost you nothing if they were to use it. This is where price segmentation comes into play - maybe you can still charge those 10 big customers the full whack, while providing benefit to the 500,000.
  - robertlagrant 1y ago
    I don't think this fits the context. An example: Angry Birds 2 made hundreds of millions by selling at 79p to hundreds of millions of people. Think what it takes to make an app to sell to 10 rich people to make the same amount of money. I'm not saying it's impossible to make money selling to rich people. It's just in no way the only way. Many ways of making money involve selling to many people.
pdonis 1y ago
> he chats a little between songs His comments between songs are at least as funny as the songs themselves. For many years I thought that recordings only existed of those comments for An Evening Wasted and That Was The Year That Was. Then I discovered The Remains of Tom Lehrer, a 3 CD set that includes, not only the original Songs By Tom Lehrer (straight off the 10 inch LP), but also a live recording of the same songs from a concert, with comments between the songs! (This set also has studio recordings of the songs from An Evening Wasted, done before the live concert recording.) Just to give a taste, before he even plays the first song in the concert version of Songs By Tom Lehrer, he gives a biographical introduction of himself, as though he were a toastmaster or an impresario. Here's how it starts (at least as much as I can capture it with just typing): "Endowed by nature with perhaps the most glorious baritone voice ever to be heard on an American stage since the memorable concert debut in 1835 of Millard Fillmore; endowed also with twelve incredibly agile fingers..."

robertlagrant 1y ago

For a software person, you should heal a "disease" of the many if you want to maximise money, as they scale better than almost anything else. But for a doctor, who can only treat a limited number of patients, you should spend your time treating rich patients if you want to maximise money.

reverendsteveii 1y ago
idk, in the age of social media I'd argue that most of the money being made on the internet is being made inducing diseases of the many
wmanley 1y ago
Depends on willingness to pay - Even if your cost per customer is 0 maximising profit would mean that it’s better (for you) to sell 10 licences for £1,000,000 a pop to rich customers who really need the service rather than 500,000 licences for £1. It’s a shame because those 500,000 miss out on your product even though it would cost you nothing if they were to use it. This is where price segmentation comes into play - maybe you can still charge those 10 big customers the full whack, while providing benefit to the 500,000.
- robertlagrant 1y ago
  I don't think this fits the context. An example: Angry Birds 2 made hundreds of millions by selling at 79p to hundreds of millions of people. Think what it takes to make an app to sell to 10 rich people to make the same amount of money. I'm not saying it's impossible to make money selling to rich people. It's just in no way the only way. Many ways of making money involve selling to many people.

pdonis 1y ago

> he chats a little between songs His comments between songs are at least as funny as the songs themselves. For many years I thought that recordings only existed of those comments for An Evening Wasted and That Was The Year That Was. Then I discovered The Remains of Tom Lehrer, a 3 CD set that includes, not only the original Songs By Tom Lehrer (straight off the 10 inch LP), but also a live recording of the same songs from a concert, with comments between the songs! (This set also has studio recordings of the songs from An Evening Wasted, done before the live concert recording.) Just to give a taste, before he even plays the first song in the concert version of Songs By Tom Lehrer, he gives a biographical introduction of himself, as though he were a toastmaster or an impresario. Here's how it starts (at least as much as I can capture it with just typing): "Endowed by nature with perhaps the most glorious baritone voice ever to be heard on an American stage since the memorable concert debut in 1835 of Millard Fillmore; endowed also with twelve incredibly agile fingers..."