Ask people to give you what you want – Herbert Lui

In December 2009, Patrick McKenzie invited Thomas Ptacek out to coffee in Chicago. This was unusual for Patrick, because he wasn’t comfortable writing cold emails at the time. While Patrick’s original intention was to gossip about Hacker News threads—they were the top two users by karma points—the conversation shifted to Thomas asking Patrick about SEO and content. Patrick writes, “It was, seriously, the most fun I had all year.”

At the end of the conversation, Thomas—who ran a very successful consulting company—said, “Some food for thought: If this hadn’t been a coffee date, but rather a consulting engagement, I’d be writing you a check right now….I got at least $15,000 of value out of this conversation.” Patrick was working as a programmer at a large Japanese company, and he figured that an intermediate programmer might be able to charge $100 per hour—so Thomas’s idea blew his mind. 

Thomas’s co-worker reinforced his claim, saying they would need a write-up for $15,000—but there was probably $5,000 in the petty cash drawer for the session. (Patrick writes that within two weeks, Thomas’s company did make $15,000 on his advice.)

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