I. This post outlines Patrick McKenzie - a brilliant technologist and entrepreneur - how he's done such amazing things and learned so much, and why he's getting drastically underpaid and how it's his own fault. This post will be most valuable for technologists who underestimate themselves and undervalue themselves.
II. Hacker News is the best tech community on the internet, and patio11 - Patrick McKenzie - is the best contributor there. I don't even think that's controversial, I think it would be near universally agreed by the HN crowd that Patrick has made as many or more important contributions as anyone.
If you're from Hacker News, you know Patrick already. But for my readers that don't know him, let me give you a quick overview.
III. Patrick is a multi-faceted genius, and I don't throw the word genius around casually.
Patrick McKenzie is many things - he's an expatriate to Japan, he's a talented coder, tester, metrics/split-testing/analytics user, a great writer, extremely modest and helpful. He can recruit people, evaluate talent, and manage people well. He understands ROI very well and is good at purchasing advertising. He's good at customer service. Outsourcing. Automation. Coding. Ecommerce.
On Tynan
One thing leads to another. I screwed up my 2007 tax return and got audited (not a big scary one, just a "fix this or pay us" notice), which motivated me to go overboard and learn everything there is about taxes, as they relate to my finances.
I then started a rudimentary expenses sheet in Excel, just as reader and blogger, Mark left a comment telling me that I should read up on double-entry accounting. So I did.
As as side note, I really appreciate it when people suggest things to learn about or read, as they relate to my posts. I can't think of the others offhand, but I know there have been a few other big ones.
