- Andrew Carnegie is a name that can many things to people; Success, brutal boss, philanthropist and many more positive and negative alike. What surprised me the most was the extent to which he did everything better than anyone else in history, constantly doing everything to an extreme that was never seen before and never seen again. I admired his relentless drive to be the best and his unshakable optimism. Even late in life after he retired he continued with is drive well into the great war. What I admired least about him was the way he treated his workers, despite being so kind to the world he did unspeakable horrors to his workers. Even going so far as to use a private security company he founded to keep his workers in line, they were practically a militia. Carnegie faced adversity as he started life very poor and rose from this poverty one of the richest men in the world all thanks to his determination and creativity.
- Andrew Carnegie from a young age questioned everything, his inquisitive nature and drive for success is what drove him into becoming the extraordinary man he is known for being.
- I was most confused by his reasoning behind why he believed why he could treat his workers the way he did. While he did give them a job that doesn’t give him the right to become an emperor of their lives. Additionally, his idea that poverty was a choice of those who were too lazy to do well for themselves, didn’t he remember his youth and the people who struggled everyday to make something of themselves.
- My two questions would be how he thought through each days obstacles to get the most out of his days and wake up the next morning in the best possible footing consistently. Merely because he seemed to so from such an early age until death. My second question would be about how he would do it again in our modern world with a landscape completely different from his own. Just to see how he would think about the world he never got to see and how he would use that famous drive and questioning to make the most of it all.
- Andrew Carnegie’s opinion of hard work is rather explicit really, whether I agree is an entirely different question. He thought that the poor were only impoverished due to their own laziness. Which I find absurd for such a smart man. Who himself came from poverty.
Friday, June 15, 2018
13A – Reading Reflection No. 1
12A – Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1
I spoke to three different people about smokers at the bus
stops this week. The first was just a lady at the stop with me, another was a
father on the bus, and finally I spoke with a friend at the class I arrived to.
They said that they just dropped their butts all around the bus stop and made a
huge mess because there wasn’t a good place to dispose of them.
With the increase in anti-smoking initiatives ash trays have
been disappearing around the city, the first lady I spoke with talked about how
she just wanted a place to get rid of it without putting it in the trash. We went
back and forth about where ashtrays went, and while we agreed it made smoking easier
I thought about how people think that public ashtrays advertise smoking. I
realized in that moment that in reality we were making the mess the smokers
cause worse. I asked her where she would want to dispose of it if she could
choose anything, and while she made it seem like she didn’t care I could tell
that anything would be better than the current solution. On my bus, leaving her
behind, I spoke with a father of two about his smoking habit. He said that he
just tears the remainder of the cigarette up and scatters the ash and holds
onto the filter until he gets home. Which was not what I was expecting to hear.
Could some kind of person storage device work? When I asked him how he came
with such a thing he just shrugged and got off the bus. I got to class a few
minutes early and asked a friend who used to smoke what he did, and he just said
he dumped it in the trash. Which seemed obvious, I guess I was too focused on
the fact it might still be lit and cause problems. He said he didn’t care and
he never set one on fire. At that time though he wasn’t really making many
great decisions, so I wouldn’t call that a “solution”.
At the end of this journey I learnt about smokers that I
never knew before. Their need to dispose of a cigarette vary widely, from just
dropping them because an old solution is disappearing to just throwing them
away with wild abandon. So, the “average” smoker each found their own way over
time of solving their butt problem.
Thursday, June 14, 2018
11A – Idea Napkin No. 1
- You? I’m just a student who is frustrated that I can’t do all the DIY projects I want because, a. I don’t have the tools, b. don’t have the space to work on a project. I am a tech-oriented individual who loves working with my hands and making new things or fixing old ones. I just want a way to solve this seemingly solvable and widespread problem. I see a lot of things online about hacker/makerspaces and they seem really cool to me, but there is never one near me. I think this would be the perfect solution for those without access to these spaces who want to work.
- What are you offering to customers? I offer two sides to the same coin, semi-passive income to space owners, and spaces for people who just need somewhere to work on a school project, hobby, or home improvement.
- Who are you offering to? My customers, like Uber, are a two-sided affair. The space owner who wants to make extra cash renting their tools/time/space and the students/hobbyists who want to have a place to work within their budget.
- Why do they care? As someone who would gladly use a service like this, when space is limited but work needs to get done this would be invaluable. When a hobby gets stunted because that next tool seems too far out of reach, or too specific to buy, the option to rent is very desirable. When a job just needs to get done and you don’t know where to turn, the local expert renting their time is a life-saver.
- What are your core competencies? I offer a service that meets a seemingly untapped need in college town, suburbs, and anywhere without a makerspace. This unmet need is ripe for the taking, especially to my current local students in IA who need a place to finish their catalyst projects. I watched students struggle to find, move, and use 3-d printers so they could create prototypes. With my solution their space could be just a drive away.
The point that feels weakest to me is my “What are your core competencies?”, this isn’t an issue I’ve seen outside of hackerspaces/makerspaces. I don’t know if it’s because this issue never arrived to anyone, or if it’s not a sustainable solution to my problem at hand. The desire seems to be there, at least for University of Florida students. Even then I don’t imagine my idea has to have any appeal outside those who want it, I shouldn’t aim to please the world. Gainesville might just be an echo chamber for a need that only Gainesville has unmet, or it could be more widespread I just don’t know.
Friday, June 8, 2018
9A – Testing the Hypothesis, Part 2
Who: Individuals
who need a space to work on a project, but are limited in space, tools, experience,
or some peace and quiet. Outside of this boundary, students fall into a grey
area of only needing the service when they are assigned a project and may already
have places to go to work on the project. We don’t live in a very maker centered
society as we move further and further from anything that isn’t mass produced
or imported, so I understand the limitations of this currently, but I believe
as the maker movement gains more and more traction we could be on the verge of
a revolution of craft.
What: My services
main flaw is that it fulfils the need best for someone who wishes to start a
project but feels overwhelmed about all the possibilities and issues that arise.
Issues that, while inherent to the craft, are often overcome by all those who pursue
the hobby/activity. Possibly meaning that I could kickstart a few projects for
people but how sustainable of a model is that?
Why: Not everyone
has a project that they don’t have or can’t acquire the tools for. In the case
of all of my living situations there’s always a friend or service to do each
task for you, so when it comes down to doing it yourself. How many people will
just go for it despite these options? Look anywhere online however and you will
be confronted by people all over the world taking up DIY more and more than
ever before.
| ? | Inside of boundary | Outside of boundary |
|---|---|---|
| Who | Anyone who needs a project finished but doesn't have the space | People who don't have a desire to craft or have a space to do so already. |
| What | Offer a space to work on any craft project. | A long term solution to peoples need for tools or workspace. |
| Who | People have school projects or personal hobbies that require tools or space they may otherwise not afford or have space for. | Those with the space and tools for their needs. |
8A – Solving The Problem
My problem is people wanting to start a project, be it
welding, woodworking, sewing, or working on a car. Not everyone has the money
time or space to gather all the tools needed for each of their projects. Often,
they end up spending more than they wanted on tools just to complete a task. My
solution is an app that allows you to especially airbnb a shop space. A rental
service that connects people with open shops who are willing to make extra cash
and people who need to get tasks done but don’t have the tools.
A few ways of implementing this service
- · One being a rental style system, in which people advertise their shop and others seek them out like the Airbnb app.
- · Another could be creating a central location, similar to a hackerspace and charging for membership.
- · Another possibility is renting the individual tools much like a city bike service.
My main consumers are those who have projects they wish to
complete but are limited by space, money, or experience. Much like how Innovation
Academy students need to hunt down 3d printers and sandpaper, any college
student needs a space to complete their work.
Friday, June 1, 2018
Practicing Opportunity Identification, Cont.
1.
Economic: Cryptocurrency Interest
b.
With the possibility of another surge of
interest in cryptocurrencies could mean that new alternate coins could be set
to release in time with said interest.
c.
Casual investors and techies are the most likely
to be affected most by the next rise in crypto.
d.
This would be relatively difficult to exploit as
the timing alone makes this a difficult opportunity, not to mention the market
saturation of new coins.
2.
Regulatory: Miami Beach Sinks into the Ocean
b.
New housing for the rich that live on the
waterfront as their multimillion dollar homes sink into the sea.
c.
After the uber rich give up their current homes
a new high-income area needs to meet their demand.
d.
This is a difficult thing to exploit due to the barrier
of entry for relators let alone realtors for high-income clients.
3.
Economic: High Fashion
b.
New chances to mix celebrity with clothes as
more and more celebs step into the fray. Finding your footing in supplying them
designers, fabric, advertising, and ways to sell.
c.
Celebs needs someone to buy from for their brand
making the possibility to middleman the process high.
d.
One would need either made up, or very real credentials
in the industry but due to a celeb only to worrying about the cash-grab part of
the process.
4.
Regulatory: Healthcare is always a safe bet
b.
Healthcare is one of the largest sectors of our
economy and as more and more changes drive rates up the possibility to make
money by supplying lower cost care.
c.
People down on their luck who need healthcare
and are looking for a reasonably priced option.
d.
Healthcare is expensive and most areas within it
are monopolies between pharmaceutical companies and doctors. I would know, my
uncle was one of the sales people for the pharmaceutical companies. The difficulty
in getting in is that monopolies have made starting anything impossible, only accusation
will work.
Identifying Local Opportunities
GLITCHES SLOW TRANSIT FOR ELDERLY, DISABLED
·
Basically, riders of Broward’s special transportation
were left stranded and unable to contact the company. Horror stories include an
eighty-year-old woman who tried to call the center and the phone rang fifty-three
times before she gave up, in another case a rider requested a ride to a doctor’s
appointment, the van arrived at the doctors on time, without the rider.
·
The buses were leaving people who are old, disabled,
or in need of assistance stranded without any way of contacting the company or receiving
any explanation for why they were stranded.
·
People
who are old, disabled, or in need of assistance.
TATE CASE JUDGE LOOKS FOR GUIDANCE
·
The judge in the Lionel Tate case, a case into
the murder of a British au pair, is researching how to avoid a life sentence
for the boy involved. Lionel Tate is one of the youngest Americans ever to be
accused of first-degree murder. In the end the judged either needs to reduce
his sentence to second-degree murder or manslaughter in order to avoid life
without parole. The boy killed the six-year-old by body slamming her to death
in mock professional wrestling.
·
The judge is conflicted about giving a fourteen-year-old
life without parole, and wishes to find a way to avoid it.
·
Lionel Tate, the murdered girl, and the judge.
INTERNET LOSS HITS BARNES & NOBLE
·
At the time Barnes & Noble hadn’t made a presence
on the internet and were experiencing loss of $4.6 million. While barnesandnoble.com
had been making sales, they were at an overall loss.
·
Barnes & Noble are losing money to internet
sales.
·
Barnes & Noble shareholders
MAN FACES PRISON IN TEEN SEX STING
·
A fifty-six-year-old man faces five years in
prison as well as ten years of probation for having a sexually explicit online
relationship with a detective who posed as a teenage girl.
·
A pedophile is caught in a sting operation
·
The pedophile and the Broward sheriff office.
COUNTY ARTS GROUPS UPSET BY PLAN TO CUT SHARE OF
TOURIST TAX MONEY
·
Under a new budget the Tourist Development Council
to ensure that events it funds are tourist related, which will draw money that
otherwise went to art events around the city. They claim it’s to discover which
events actually draw tourists, and that too much money had been spent on events
that explicitly do not promote tourism.
·
A new budget looks to cut funding to the arts in
a drastic way.
·
The art community and the Tourist Development Council.
JUDGE WON'T SPARE LIFE OF MURDERER
·
A judge has denied stay of a murderer’s execution
citing errors made by a former lawyer. Stating that he will go to the Florida Supreme
Court if he has to. The murderer O’Callaghan, 38, fatally shot another bar
patron over a gambling dispute.
·
A murderer wishes to appeal a ruling due to
errors made by a previous lawyer.
·
A murderer, a judge, and two lawyers one former
one current.
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