🎣002 Cheap Solutions

three suggestions for fishin'

💸 In the space of possible answers, there’s almost always a cheap solution. It takes time and expertise to get there, but like fish under the water, they are there for the patient, skilled, and lucky.

One cheap solution is Chipotle’s queue. Zach Fuss said that part of Chipotle’s appeal is the experience.

Chipotle has the benefit of moving you through the line as they're assembling your order, so by the time you order to the time you get to the counter, if you consider your customer experience, in some cases it feels like it's 30 seconds to a minute.

Chipotle does have an excellent rating for wait times but by moving it also feels faster.

Our perception of time affects our perception of experience.

This is a Rory Sutherland point and warning: don’t overweight the quantifiable relative to the qualifiable just because it is simpler to measure. Time is the ultimate example. Anytime you’ve found yourself saying ‘I wish there were WIFI here’ is an admission that hey, I don’t mind waiting as much so long as there’s something to do.

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🧱 Now this one. How do you put a brick on the roof piece such that it doesn’t crush the figurine below?

This is via Nature.

Ok, what if each additional block costs $2. If you choose to add columns, that’ll be $8 each. Venmo me.

Most people add columns. Some people remove the pillar support.

Subtraction¹ is a cheap solution. Subtraction is non-obvious. The Nature researchers looked at situations when newly appointed college presidents asked for suggestions from faculty, staff, and students and found only 11% of suggestions were subtractions.

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🍷 Perception is often a cheap solution. Subtraction is often a cheap solution. Framing is often a cheap solution. Empathy Wines is a DTC wine brand that partnered with Gary Vanerychuk to sell wines. Each year they offer a series of blends.

Yep, blends. Hey, there’s no chardonnay. Not a merlot, ya know. Rose in stock? Out of luck.

How does this work? Through framing. The founders talk about how blends let them select the best grapes. Do you see the trick? Jon Troutman uses framing to conduct magic. Rather than think about the kind of grape, the consumers think about the best grapes.

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It’s really easy to settle on first answers, on simple answers, on social answers.

But there’s more out there.

Look in the areas of framing, subtraction, and perception.

And keep fishing.

1. Related ideas are via negativa (gain by removal) and iatrogenic (harm from treatment).