on comp
theres a psychological aspect to my compensation strategy. i used to be really cheap, super bootstrapper type and then i noticed that when i was cheap with comp, everything took longer so it ended up costing me more and taking longer since the time costed more than i saved by being cheap. so i thought about it and talked to a bunch of people and tested it out in some cases and realized the most effective way to do it, is ask what people need first (cover thier living) then ask what they think is fair and as long as they are being reasonable, offer a bit more than they said because then they feel grateful and feel they have something to prove to deserve the extra bonus and you actually save money in the long run because of increased productivity. of course i dont believe in ever aggressively overcompensating, that causes people to sit on thier earnings and get lazy because their making so much. in general ive found you always want to pay slghtly above expectation with slightly more kicker than expected but the kicker (equity/bonus) should either be subjective (up to employer) or stricter to get than standard (make peopel work for the bonus instead of get a bonus)
