My Psychic Kiosk

I've said it before. You didn't believe me. That's fine, I'm used to it.

A little over a month ago, I mentioned I might be a little psychic. You scoffed. Or maybe you just kept scrolling. Either way, you did not take me seriously, and that's on you. Because last week, I almost walked straight into a Dunning-Kruger moment — and I didn't, because apparently my future self had already warned my past self to write about it few weeks in advance.

What do you call that if not psychic? I'll wait. And before you say "coincidence", let me show you the evidence.

The Integration

Last week, a client was integrating their application with Metrifox so we could handle their billing and monetisation. They asked a clarifying question about how we billed customers on higher billing periods — quarterly, for example. Specifically, why the UI showed the price multiplied by 3.

Let me use a relatable example. If I'm selling my psychic consultations at $30 per session (yes, I'm keeping it affordable because I genuinely love helping people), I'd offer $25 per session if you're paying quarterly in advance. Our system would show the total as 25 × 3 × qty.

The client found this confusing. I did not understand the confusion. A quarter is 3 months, so of course the price is multiplied by 3. I explained this. They pushed back, insisting something wasn't right. "We are a monetisation platform! We have other clients and this is how the system has always worked. You probably don't know what you're talking about Mister."

Nopes, I did not say that. Instead, we took a step back.

After some back and forth, we found it — and yes, they were right. For every previous client, the provisioning model delivered sessions per month within the quarter. So if you wanted 4 psychic sessions on a quarterly plan, that meant 4 sessions per month, and the system correctly calculated 25 × 4 × 3 — 12 sessions total.

But for this client, 4 sessions on a quarterly plan meant 4 sessions for the entire quarter. So the correct calculation was simply 25 × 4. We hadn't accounted for the fact that the provisioning model itself was the variable, and it was quietly breaking how we presented the billing figures.

We made the correction. And then it hit me: I had written about this exact trap few weeks before I nearly fell into it. My future self knew. My future self warned me.

Still think I'm not psychic?

The Kiosk

So here's the plan.

With AI absorbing every job that can be absorbed, I've identified a gap in the market. The overhead is low, the demand will be high, and frankly, I've already demonstrated the core competency. I'm going to be a psychic. A proper one. You come to me, I tell you what's coming, you leave better prepared than you arrived.

$30 a session. $25 if you're paying quarterly — you've seen how that works now. And if you're committing to a full year, we can talk. Your future self probably has a lot to say and these things take time. Some future selves are stubborn. I don't give up easily though, we'll keep at it until something useful comes through.

Kiosk details TBC. Online bookings coming soon.

In the meantime, tell your friends and family. And please don't steal this idea. I'm being very generous sharing my escape plan with you.

Thanks for reading amigo and yes, do come back next time 🤪

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