It's funny, because _Influence_ was the boy's assigned reading this summer. I'm pretty familiar with reciprocity. I don't think it's that easy to trigger it with a YC partner and a six pack of beer. I don't know, maybe it was Russian River.
Mostly what I'm fixated on here is the difference between trying to prove your commitment to an idea on the Internet v. proving your commitment to an idea in real life. Lots of people are "Internet-determined". Give them a sequence of keys to punch, and they will do it, no matter how long that key sequence is! I can imagine, if my job was filtering through many hundreds of long key sequences from people on the Internet, that any signal of real-life commitment or execution would stand out.
Mostly what I'm fixated on here is the difference between trying to prove your commitment to an idea on the Internet v. proving your commitment to an idea in real life. Lots of people are "Internet-determined". Give them a sequence of keys to punch, and they will do it, no matter how long that key sequence is! I can imagine, if my job was filtering through many hundreds of long key sequences from people on the Internet, that any signal of real-life commitment or execution would stand out.