Every argument clarity score on this site is built from rows on this page. Each
question and answer was assessed with names hidden, the host's own answers included, on
four things from 1 to 5:
directness (does it answer the question asked), coherence (do the ideas follow),
precision (concrete details and clear references), compression (says a lot per word). The weighted
mix (30/30/25/15) is the exchange score. A person's published score averages their exchange
scores on raw tape only, at least 8 of them, shrunk toward the cohort mean.
Full method →
Answered produced feed
D 5 · C 5 · P 5 · Cm 5 5.00
Q And where did you install this arcade game? Where was it?
A We put it in a bar Called the Dutch Goose. It was in Menlo Park. It was right next to Stanford University. The game was a smash hit at the Dutch Goose. I licensed the game to a company called Nutting Associates, and, um, realized that it did really well in college campuses. So, I mean, it sold a couple of million dollars in, in units, which was, to me, a big hit. But to the industry was kind of a mediocre flop. But I had a five percent royalty, and so that was, uh, you know, a 100,000 dollars, which was a massive amount of money. Put this in context. I came to work at Ampex for 825 dollars a month as an associate engineer.
AI assessment note: “We put it in a bar Called the Dutch Goose. It was in Menlo Park.”
Answered produced feed
D 5 · C 5 · P 5 · Cm 5 5.00
Q What was the price that he wanted to pay?
A We were quoting a retail price of 59, and we decided that we needed an extra 20 bucks per unit, and he said, that's okay, I, I, I can do that. Then, I went through the math, and there was no way that I had enough capital to put in the conveyor belts, to rent the extra facility, to buy the parts. And I called him, and I said, you know, I, I really appreciate the order, but I said, I can't fund this. He says, oh, don't worry. I'll introduce you to Sears Bank. And so, Sears Bank set up a bonded warehouse at the end of the conveyor line, and so as soon as a consumer Pong dropped off the assembly line, they would advance us 80% of the contract price with Sears.
AI assessment note: “We were quoting a retail price of 59, and we decided that we needed”
Answered produced feed
D 5 · C 5 · P 5 · Cm 5 5.00
Q How did that happen? How, how do you even come up with this concept?
A Well, the math is very simple. Before I sold Warner, we were selling games. These were coin-operated games, remember. We were selling them for about 1500 dollars. During their lifetime, in CoinDrop, they'd earned 30 to 50,000 dollars. So it didn't take rocket science to say I'm on the wrong side of this equation. I need to be operating these things to a bigger extent. But I didn't want to compete with the guys I was selling to, so I decided I had to create my own location. I thought to myself, why are people going to come to this freestanding arcade? And I decided that adding food would be a benefit because then families could come, and that indicated pizza because there was wait time, and that would be good game-playing time.
AI assessment note: “I thought to myself, why are people going to come to this freestanding arcade?”
Answered produced feed
D 5 · C 5 · P 5 · Cm 5 5.00
Q How long did it take you to, to become who you are, to realize that that's who you are?
A Well, I hope that I'm not there yet. I, I want to stay on this deep part of the learning curve. And in fact, I've even done a methodology on it. I, I force myself to do something totally outside my comfort zone every year. And I write down 11 things that I think I can accomplish in a year that are outside my comfort zone. And then I mix them up, put a number on them, throw a pair of dice, and I have to in that year do what the dice tell me to do. And I've discovered a funny thing. Maybe it's just me, but I think it's a generalized principle that when you do different things, you're happier.
AI assessment note: “Well, I hope that I'm not there yet.”
Answered produced feed
D 5 · C 5 · P 5 · Cm 5 5.00
Q What was the price that he wanted to pay?
A We were quoting a retail price of 59, and we decided that we needed an extra 20 bucks per unit. And he said, that's okay, I, I, I can do that. Then, I went through the math, and there was no way that I had enough capital to put in the conveyor belts, to rent the extra facility, to buy the parts. And I called him, and I said, you know, I, I, I really appreciate the order, but I said, I can't fund this. He says, oh, don't worry. I'll introduce you to Sears Bank. And so, Sears Bank set up a bonded warehouse at the end of the conveyor line, and so as soon as a consumer Pong dropped off the assembly line, they would advance us 80% of the contract price with Sears.
AI assessment note: “We were quoting a retail price of 59, and we decided that we needed an extra 20 bucks”
Answered produced feed
D 5 · C 5 · P 5 · Cm 4 4.85
Q How long did it take you to, to become who you are, to realize that that's who you are?
A Well, I hope that I'm not there yet. I, I want to stay on this deep part of the learning curve. And in fact, I've even done a methodology on it. I, I force myself to do something totally outside my comfort zone every year. And I write down 11 things that I think I can accomplish in a year that are outside my comfort zone. And then I Mix them up, put a number on them, throw a pair of dice, and I have to, in that year, do what the dice tell me to do. And I've discovered a funny thing. Maybe it's just me, but I think it's a generalized principle that when you do different things, you're happier. That this process of, of exploration and of discovery and of winnowing Without the game and the metagame is very satisfying.
AI assessment note: “Well, I hope that I'm not there yet.”
Answered produced feed
D 4 · C 5 · P 4 · Cm 4 4.30
Q I mean, were people like the serious companies, were they, would they, would they look down on you?
A We liked our rebel status. And we were a rebel in several ways. First of all, we were all young. I was the youngest CEO, and people didn't know what to think about a CEO in their twenties. I mean, that was just off the radar. And, and I actually feel like I paved the way for Gates and Jobs and some of the idea that you can be young and still a serious businessman. But more than that, we got known as a real Party culture, because instead of bonuses, since all our employees were in their early twenties, we'd have a beer bust on the back dock, and you'd get, you know, a hundred dollars worth of pizza and two kegs, and you had a party, and that was totally unheard of, and of course we had a game room, and we had ping pong tables, stuff that Silicon Valley kind of thinks is de rigueur and necessary now.
AI assessment note: “We liked our rebel status. And we were a rebel in several ways.”
Answered produced feed
D 4 · C 4 · P 4 · Cm 4 4.00
Q I mean, were people like the serious companies? Were they, would they, would they look down on you?
A We liked our rebel status. And we were a rebel in several ways. First of all, we were all young. I was the youngest CEO, and people didn't know what to think about a CEO in their twenties. I mean, that was just off the radar. And, and I actually feel like I paved the way for Gates and Jobs and some of the idea that you can be young and still a serious businessman. But more than that, we got known as a real Party culture. Because instead of bonuses, since all our employees were in their early twenties, we'd have a beer bust on the back dock. And you'd get, you know, a hundred dollars worth of pizza and two kegs, and you had a party. And that was totally unheard of. And of course, we had a game room, and we had ping pong tables. Stuff that Silicon Valley kind of thinks is de rigueur and necessary now.
AI assessment note: “We liked our rebel status. And we were a rebel in several ways.”
