Credits look like a solution to variable cost. They're really a way of moving the variance onto the user without telling them.
In Arteza a quick edit and a full multi shot render are about 12x apart in what they cost us to run. Both are priced in the same unit. So someone learns an exchange rate from the cheap action, builds a mental model, then spends a third of their balance in one click and feels robbed. That isn't a pricing bug. We asked them to hold a cost model in their head that we never showed them.
What's worked is putting the credit cost on the button before the click instead of in a docs table. Boring fix, and it cut the where did my credits go messages more than any price change we made.
The part I haven't solved is failures. A bad output still burned the compute. Refund it and people retry until they like the result. Don't refund and credits feel like a slot machine. We refund and eat it, which won't scale.
We use AI to improve something in the process (mostly to speed up the process).
But whenever I see and suspect that something is generated by LLMs, I feel that the person on the other side has slopped it a bit (and subconsciously I perceive it as "something less").
Hi everyone! For over 10 years I've worked at the intersection of community and business. I cofounded CMX which hosts a network of over 20K community-oriented professionals that we support with training, events, and research. CMX was acquired by Bevy, a platform that powers all of your virtual and in-person community events, where I am now the VP of Community. I also recently published my new book, "The Business of Belonging" where I share over a decade of knowledge on what a winning community strategy looks like, from metrics to techniques. I'm happy to share my experiences and answer any questions you may have on how to successfully build community, host events, measuring community business value, and building startups.
How did you come up with your startup name? https://evoke-app.com/ was named after some controversial guy from a debate server my co-founder frequented Was all he could think about while coding
The state has become the first U.S. state to regulate AI companion chatbots. Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 243, a new law requiring companies like OpenAI, Meta, Character AI, and Replika to implement safety protocols protecting children and vulnerable users.
Notion, Obsidian, and Roam are great, but they re not for everyone. Maybe you found something simpler, faster, or just less overwhelming. What s the one productivity tool you actually stick with the one that makes life easier instead of adding more work?
Three of today's launches ship a confident number at the user. How much of this page is AI. How far this repo sits from production ready. How many hours of debt that represents. Different products, same move.
The problem isn't accuracy. It's that nobody can tell you when it's wrong. A linter points at line 40 and you either agree or you don't. A 0-100 score for something unmeasurable can't be argued with, so it never gets corrected, and it trains people to either ignore it or trust it for no reason at all.
