[extropy-chat] Some ideas... dumped

Emlyn emlynoregan at gmail.com
Tue Aug 17 04:57:22 UTC 2004


On Mon, 16 Aug 2004 20:48:16 -0700 (PDT), Adrian Tymes
<wingcat at pacbell.net> wrote:
> --- Emlyn <emlynoregan at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I think there are a million things you could build
> > right now and that
> > people would find useful, and some relatively large
> > subset of these
> > would be commercialisable. The 'net, for instance,
> > is still a fabulous
> > rambling mess of stuff where everything that is hard
> > to do or hard to
> > understand or hard to use for people can be seen as
> > an opportunity.
> 
> More of an advantage, at least from my view, is the
> fact that if you can conceive of it and it's simple
> enough, someone else has probably done it - but now
> you can find that other person, or at least stories
> about why they failed if it's actually non-viable.
> (There are rare occasions when what you're doing truly
> is unique.  And in those cases, you're less likely to
> face competition, at least until you can commercialize
> and recover investment - if you move fast enough.)

Yes yes yes! I totally agree with this. Most of my best ideas are
really things I need myself. When it turns out they already exist,
there's one less mighty task that I need to undertake.

> 
> > btw, it is also my contention that most ideas for
> > doing things can be
> > safely blurted out in public fora / blogs. Any ideas
> > worth pursuing
> > take enough work that people wont normally steal
> > them, in fact they
> > think the idea is crap (I can't see that...) until
> > it is made
> > concrete. Ideas aren't something people want to
> > grab, you usually have
> > to ram them down people's throats.
> 
> And besides, for most ideas really worth doing, our
> own lives are enriched even if someone else rips them
> off and successfully implements them.  

Yes! That's the other major reason that I blog my ideas, because it'd
be really cool if someone would "steal" them (hey, they are freely
given)  & implement them. Pleeeese!

> For instance,
> say I suddenly realized a simple, safe, cheap, and
> reliable way to upload people that could be done with
> today's technology, and I bounced it off people, one
> of whom went ahead and did it without telling me while
> I was still bouncing it around.  Net result: it
> becomes possible for people like me to upload.  Yes, I
> don't collect the corresponding fortune...but I and
> those I care about could have immortality (or, at
> least, rid ourselves of most of the age-related causes
> of death) if we choose.  I'd still win, right along
> with most of the human race.

Right on.

> 
> That said, you do have to look out for yourself. 

Even I don't blog *all* of my ideas... :-D

> But
> making the world better can, sometimes, bring us far
> more material rewards than going after the material
> rewards themselves.  Sometimes.

You have to do *something* yourself. But I find (no idea what other
people's experience is) that I have vastly more ideas than I have the
ability to implement. eg: if I have a couple of usable ideas per week,
but each one takes at least a few months on average to implement. Some
require vast teams & fortunes, or established networks. Some are just
plain evil (eg: my idea of putting self-checkout machines in
supermarkets that give out prizes occassionally (cash if possible,
even if its just a "gift voucher" for the store), basically poker
machines). By far the majority of those ideas are just pouring down
the plug hole.

Finding something to do myself is never a problem, it's the job of
choosing between them that's difficult. And I can't afford most of my
own time, which sucks.

-- 
Emlyn

http://emlynoregan.com   * blogs * music * software *



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