Patrick McKenzie
Software engineer and writer, known online as patio11. Ran the small software business Bingo Card Creator and Starfighter, then worked at Stripe; writes about the mechanics of money at Bits about Money and wrote for years at Kalzumeus about careers, negotiation and the business of software.
Patrick McKenzie did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
Filter All topics · Newest first
-
Their wordsThe financial industry understands itself to be an arm of the government. We were inducted into this service other-than-willingly through the ordinary operation of law and regulation. This is uncontroversial and unsurprising to insiders.
↗Notes on a non-profit indicted for bank fraudbitsaboutmoney.com 1st of 3 in this piece
-
Their wordsBut in law, as in restaurants, we are allowed to write down recipes and tell people to just follow the steps.
↗Notes on a non-profit indicted for bank fraudbitsaboutmoney.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
-
documentationgovernmentAmerica
Their wordsOne critique is that this regime is functionally an end-run around the Fourth Amendment.
↗Notes on a non-profit indicted for bank fraudbitsaboutmoney.com 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 3 months earlier
-
Their wordsit is well-understood in industry that the optimal amount of fraud is not zero.
↗Fraud Investigation is Believing Your Lying Eyesbitsaboutmoney.com 1st of 3 in this piece
-
Our reading
A person who has committed fraud once is likely to go on to commit fraud again in a new venture.
Their wordsthe dominant next adventure for a former fraudster is... opening up a new fraud.
↗Fraud Investigation is Believing Your Lying Eyesbitsaboutmoney.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
-
Our reading
Most fraud is the product of an organized business process rather than individual wrongdoing.
Their wordsMost fraud, like most scaled property crime, is actually the result of a business process.
↗Fraud Investigation is Believing Your Lying Eyesbitsaboutmoney.com 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 4 weeks earlier
-
Their wordsIt is a CSR clicking a button on their web app’s interface after 3 minutes of consideration, and then entire evidentiary record often fits in a tweet.
↗One Regulation E, Two Very Different Regimesbitsaboutmoney.com 1st of 2 in this piece
-
Their wordsif it walks like a checking account, quacks like a checking account, and is marketed as an alternative to checking accounts, then it is almost certainly within Reg E scope
↗One Regulation E, Two Very Different Regimesbitsaboutmoney.com 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 3 weeks earlier
-
Their wordsMany people think the U.S. can't make large, effective, pro-consumer regulatory regimes. They are straightforwardly wrong... some of the time.
↗The gift card accountability sinkbitsaboutmoney.com 1st of 3 in this piece
-
Their wordsThe dominant reason for this is that suggesting a concrete action to you gets you off the phone faster, and the call center aggressively minimizes time to resolution of calls and recidivism, where you call back because your problem is not solved.
↗The gift card accountability sinkbitsaboutmoney.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
-
Their wordspeople who write professionally about money-including professional advocates for financially vulnerable populations-often misunderstand alternative financial services, largely because those services are designed to serve a social class that professionals themselves do not belong to, rarely interact with directly, and do not habitually ask how they pay rent, utilities, or phone bills.
↗The gift card accountability sinkbitsaboutmoney.com 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 4 months earlier
-
Their wordsAlmost all discussions of it center on “data”, but it’s actually a fight about payments, and whether banks have a right to monopolize and charge for all economic activity their users engage in, irrespective of whether the bank operates the payment method.
↗Open Banking and payments competitionbitsaboutmoney.com 1st of 4 in this piece
-
Our reading
Having banked almost everyone does not entitle banks to a fee on every transaction in society.
Their wordsWe have made enormous strides, both from the financial industry and civil society, in banking almost everyone.
↗Open Banking and payments competitionbitsaboutmoney.com 2nd of 4 in this piece
-
Their wordsBut cards are not and cannot be the last word in payments.
↗Open Banking and payments competitionbitsaboutmoney.com 3rd of 4 in this piece
-
Their wordsWe should not allow banks to get into the habit of sending demand letters to ruin the economics of businesses they simply do not like.
↗Open Banking and payments competitionbitsaboutmoney.com 4th of 4 in this piece
- 8 months earlier
-
Their wordsWe will explore some coordination mechanisms, which are overstated, and some correlation mechanisms, which are poorly understood.
↗Debanking (and Debunking?)bitsaboutmoney.com 1st of 5 in this piece
-
Their wordsWe’re hearing about debanking because it sometimes affects socially established wealthy entrepreneurs and their companies.
↗Debanking (and Debunking?)bitsaboutmoney.com 2nd of 5 in this piece
-
Our reading
A US deposit account is a credit product, and cannot be made otherwise without breaking it.
Their wordsFor one thing, typical deposit accounts in the U.S. are actually credit products. It's baked in and can't be baked out without making them unfit for purpose.
↗Debanking (and Debunking?)bitsaboutmoney.com 3rd of 5 in this piece
-
Our reading
Nic Carter correctly identified the product behind the FDIC’s redacted crypto pause letters.
Their wordsI think Carter is very likely (90%+) correct with respect to identifying the subject of these letters.
↗Debanking (and Debunking?)bitsaboutmoney.com 4th of 5 in this piece
-
Our reading
Americans are not, as a routine matter, cut off from the financial system for their politics.
Their wordsThis does not happen as a matter of routine in the United States.
↗Debanking (and Debunking?)bitsaboutmoney.com 5th of 5 in this piece
- 13 years earlier
-
Their wordsClose to 100% is subject to the results of salary negotiations. Thus, your salary negotiations are probably going to be the most important financial decisions you will ever make. We socialize middle class Americans to go into them unprepared, demotivated, and fearful of success.
↗Salary Negotiation: Make More Money, Be More Valuedkalzumeus.com 1st of 4 in this piece
-
Their wordsThis is a roundabout way of telling you that companies are not sensitive to small differences in employee wages because employees are so darned expensive anyhow.
↗Salary Negotiation: Make More Money, Be More Valuedkalzumeus.com 2nd of 4 in this piece
-
Their wordsIt is Bob’s job to get you signed with the company as cheaply as possible, but Bob is not super motivated to do so, because Bob is not spending Bob’s money to hire you. Bob is spending Bob’s budget.
↗Salary Negotiation: Make More Money, Be More Valuedkalzumeus.com 3rd of 4 in this piece
-
Their wordsThey are all using your previous anomalously low salary — a salary which did not reflect your true market worth, because you were young or inexperienced or unskilled at negotiation or working at a different firm or in another line of work entirely — to justify paying you an anomalously low salary in the future.
↗Salary Negotiation: Make More Money, Be More Valuedkalzumeus.com 4th of 4 in this piece
- 3 months earlier
-
Their wordsThe person who has decided to bring on one more engineer is not doing it because they love having a geek around the room, they are doing it because adding the geek allows them to complete a project (or projects) which will add revenue or decrease costs.
↗Don't Call Yourself A Programmer, And Other Career Advicekalzumeus.com 1st of 9 in this piece
-
Their wordsYou really want to be attached to Profit Centers because it will bring you higher wages, more respect, and greater opportunities for everything of value to you.
↗Don't Call Yourself A Programmer, And Other Career Advicekalzumeus.com 2nd of 9 in this piece
-
Their wordsIf you call yourself a programmer, someone is already working on a way to get you fired.
↗Don't Call Yourself A Programmer, And Other Career Advicekalzumeus.com 3rd of 9 in this piece
-
Their wordsIn the real world, picking up a new language takes a few weeks of effort and after 6 to 12 months nobody will ever notice you haven’t been doing that one for your entire career.
↗Don't Call Yourself A Programmer, And Other Career Advicekalzumeus.com 4th of 9 in this piece
-
Their wordsYou should be a good person to everyone you meet — it is the moral thing to do, and as a sidenote will really help your networking — but do not be under the delusion that everyone is your friend.
↗Don't Call Yourself A Programmer, And Other Career Advicekalzumeus.com 5th of 9 in this piece
-
Their wordsKey takeaway: you probably are good enough to work at that company you think you’re not good enough for. They hire better mortals, but they still hire mortals.
↗Don't Call Yourself A Programmer, And Other Career Advicekalzumeus.com 6th of 9 in this piece