2022-05-12 at

Smalltalk

I think my definition of small talk is a bit odd. Examples :

-  If we're discussing business and they keep drilling down into one dimension without consideration for other stakeholders ... 

- if we're discussing individual preferences and they avoid tracing out the structure of where preferences come from ...

These are my two most frequently encountered forms of small talk.

...

Also anyone who gets hung up on (is irreversibly emotionally escalated by) trying to be :

- rich (avoidance of poverty)

- loved (avoidance of loneliness)

- a particular type of person (ideals about ethics, fashion, etc.)

These describe the types of people highly predisposed to what I think of as small talk.

...

Small talk may be annoying, but it pays the bills, and sometimes gets you laid, I guess.

2022-05-11 at

the Algebra of Five-star Ratings Maintenance

Maintaining a 5.0-star average : requires 79 five-star reviews per one-star review ... and a 4.6-star average : requires only 7.9 five-star reviews per one-star review.

My 24-hour cafe used to go about 4.3 stars. So that means it took only 4.7 five-star reviews to counter a one-star review. This was pretty comfortable as a business model where we actively divided the customer base, and got rid of customers which were off-brand for us (customers who incur more cost on us, than benefit). In other words, for me this was a "nice" business. If my rating was higher, my brand would have been too conservative, and not excellent in terms of getting rid of bad customers.