Larry Chiang’s move at somebody else’s event is to show up with one small thing the host almost certainly forgot. It might be extra napkins, a phone charger, ice, or a marker for name tags. None of it costs much or takes much thought. What it buys is disproportionate. A host under pressure remembers whoever solved a problem in the first five minutes.
This is External API thinking turned toward people instead of platforms: you are plugging into a gap that already exists in someone else’s event. Larry’s version of the rule still applies, spend a little, and the return is not measured in dollars but in how you are remembered. It is also a karma move in his framework, a small act of generosity that gets tracked and comes back later, sometimes far later.
The gesture works because it asks for nothing in return in the moment, which is exactly what makes it register as generous rather than transactional. Larry says he treats it as a habit, not a one-time trick, since a habit is what makes it feel natural instead of staged.
The size of the thing matters less than the timing. Arriving right when it is needed is worth more than a bigger gift given late. It also gives you a natural reason to talk to the host directly instead of waiting to be introduced.
Hosts remember who helped and who just consumed the food and left, and that memory outlasts most small talk from the night. Larry treats this as one of the cheapest ways to bank goodwill before you ever need to ask that host for anything.
Details: Watch Larry explain the habit
#Karma #ExternalAPI #Web12