I think they plan on running workshops or seminars, likely targeted at startup founders or business/consultant-type people handling large decisions (both from a capability-to-pay and a convinced-of-the-value point of view, this makes far more sense than school curriculums).
What is the closest existing thing to this? How can we make friends with someone who is good at it? Are there any books about them doing it that we could read?
Brainstorm:
Sales seminars
Continuing education programs for businesspeople, e.g. evening MBAs
I would guess that large organizations are more willing to pay for live instruction than startup founders are. On the other hand, you wouldn’t be able to suggest that they do anything that wasn’t in the best interest of their employer like quit their job.
If organizational seminars are going to be a goal, it might not be a bad idea to start talking to relevant organizational folks to make sure you’re making a product they actually want to buy. Jane Street could be an ideal first client, since they’ve got prestige you can use to sell other clients, EY has a pre-existing relationship with them, and they seem genuinely interested in improving their rationality. On the other hand, their rationality may be at a level where they don’t think they could benefit from this sort of workshop, or targeting the workshop at them would mean developing a different set of materials. (But these “advanced” materials might appeal to clients who had already purchased and enjoyed the “basic” materials.)
The standard way to do this sort of B2B sale is to graduate to more and more important clients, since a lot of businesses will not buy a novel product unless some other businesses bought it and were happy with it. That’s why getting and pleasing the first few clients is so important.
Robin Hanson has had a hard time selling prediction markets to businesses. Should we expect this to be more successful? I would guess yes, since it’s not as explicitly targeted at replacing the people who might choose to implement it.
I think they plan on running workshops or seminars, likely targeted at startup founders or business/consultant-type people handling large decisions (both from a capability-to-pay and a convinced-of-the-value point of view, this makes far more sense than school curriculums).
What is the closest existing thing to this? How can we make friends with someone who is good at it? Are there any books about them doing it that we could read?
Brainstorm:
Sales seminars
Continuing education programs for businesspeople, e.g. evening MBAs
Getting things done seminars, for organizations and the public
Lean thinking, kaizen seminars
Six Sigma seminars
http://www.richdadeducation.com/ (kind of scammy)
The Landmark Forum (even scammier)
http://danariely.com/speaking/
http://personalmba.com/ (note that ways to pay Josh other than buying his book are not immediately apparent, and that he is a Less Wrong user).
http://thinkingthingsdone.com/ (also a less wrong user)
Tony Robbins, firewalking, etc.
I would guess that large organizations are more willing to pay for live instruction than startup founders are. On the other hand, you wouldn’t be able to suggest that they do anything that wasn’t in the best interest of their employer like quit their job.
If organizational seminars are going to be a goal, it might not be a bad idea to start talking to relevant organizational folks to make sure you’re making a product they actually want to buy. Jane Street could be an ideal first client, since they’ve got prestige you can use to sell other clients, EY has a pre-existing relationship with them, and they seem genuinely interested in improving their rationality. On the other hand, their rationality may be at a level where they don’t think they could benefit from this sort of workshop, or targeting the workshop at them would mean developing a different set of materials. (But these “advanced” materials might appeal to clients who had already purchased and enjoyed the “basic” materials.)
The standard way to do this sort of B2B sale is to graduate to more and more important clients, since a lot of businesses will not buy a novel product unless some other businesses bought it and were happy with it. That’s why getting and pleasing the first few clients is so important.
Robin Hanson has had a hard time selling prediction markets to businesses. Should we expect this to be more successful? I would guess yes, since it’s not as explicitly targeted at replacing the people who might choose to implement it.
Initially. School curriculum would be harder to develop, so the plan is for that to happen later.