Raising the Cost of Admission to Talk to Humans

I’ve been thinking: the cost of admission for speaking to a real human being should go up.

Drowning in Noise

There is just so much noise out there, and it’s getting worse—especially because we now live in an AI world. For the first time ever, the amount of traffic created by AI has surpassed that created by humans.

That means filtering out noise is becoming a much bigger deal. It’s harder than ever to know what’s worth your time and attention.

A Higher Barrier to Talk to a Human

So I started thinking about a service—at least something I would like—where we artificially, or at least temporarily, raise the barrier to talk to a real person.

Imagine a system where you have to pay a price of admission, and the human on the other side actually sets that price.

For example: to speak to me (let’s say “Pdash”) for 30 minutes, you’d have to send me $10 via Apple Pay before the meeting. After the meeting, I’d send you some of that back—maybe not the full $10, but say $9. Free for friends of course.

I set both the admission price and the refund price.

Why This Might Work

That small bit of non-refundable cost would likely filter out a lot of noise—casual pings, low-intent outreach, and time-wasting conversations.

What do you think?