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In light of That OpenAI Thing, this was a timely post.

a reasonable consensus of experts on NPOs [non-profit organizations] agrees that their governance is generally abysmal

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Here’s more on pricing (this is turning into an informal Pricing Week).

Always place your price below the product, not above it.

This approach made the same price feel 9% lower on dental floss and increased sales 35% in a liquor store, in the experimental study.

One of the crucial metaphors ingrained in us as we grow up is:

Down is less and up is more

Metaphors are powerful because they’re essentially the cognitive interface between the brain and the world. Vehicles for experience.

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Speaking of abstraction, it’s partly why frequent flyer programs work so well amongst the business set. The cost is abstracted away from the beneficiary.

the genius part of this incentive is that the person who makes the flight choice enjoys the loyalty program benefits rather than the person who actually buys the ticket

An important rule for incentive design:

know who pays for the product and who enjoys the incentives

It’s not always the same person.

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Pricing is an interesting practice

They determined that when the prices were listed with the dollar sign, customers spent less. Conversely, when the dollar sign was absent, they tended to spend more.

Putting on my hack consumer psychologist hat for a minute…

The dollar sign is a symbol that connects a number to the pieces of paper we think of as money.

The absence of that symbol allows the number to remain an abstract representation, just like the bits and bytes of digital finance.

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This OpenAI stuff is a cluster.

The AI race is fast and furious right now. The board’s decision may be the equivalent of a massive in-season superstar trade in sports.

Microsoft could be poised to take the lead while OpenAI could become an also ran or small research shop.