One day during college, my engineering friends, Brad, Carter and I, joked about how difficult it is to be average. The conversation sounded like this. “That guy is incredibly average.” “Yeah, what are the odds of being the exact average person? “Astronomically low really. What an amazing feat.” “Truly an extraordinary accomplishment! His parents should be so proud.” “I wish I could be that...
Although launched less than two years ago, ChatGPT has made artificial intelligence accessible to the masses, transitioning AI from nerds-only tech to a mainstream audience. The extremely fast adoption of ChatGPT has ushered in a proliferation of additional large language models with real utility to businesses and individuals alike. According to ChatGPT itself, its top 10 use-cases are currently:...
I originally thought I was writing a book but found my topics too disparate and unrelated to collapse into a sequence of chapters within a single bound, cohesive structure. Consequently, a blog seemed the better format for my musings. The problem – I had no idea how to setup a blog from scratch with a unique domain and host it on a server. So, I learned the hard way… by figuring it out myself. As...
A footnote at the end of my last blog post suggested now may not be an ideal time to invest in the stock market. 50% of my readers asked for further elaboration on this point. What follows is undoubtedly more than requested. Although the market is currently at an all-time high, that’s an insufficient rationale to avoid it. It is possible the economy will continue to expand, thus warranting higher...
This is the third part in a four-part series. My first post on this topic introduced the three component parts of fun. The second post in this series introduced the Totality of Fun and discussed Part 2 Fun in more detail. Today, I finish my thoughts on the Totality of Fun by elaborating on Part 1 and Part 3 Fun. I also highlight how all this leads into a particular dilemma with Alzheimer’s, a...
It’s difficult to keep things simple. Whether starting a new company or launching an additional product or service, aim for the absolute minimum viable product and keep everything as simple as possible. I cannot over-emphasize this point. Strive for stunningly simple. In design. In policies. In procedures. In relationships. Simple means easy-to-use, frictionless and minimalistic. Simple is good...
If the market you want to enter is wide open, without competition, you might pause to ask yourself why. There may be a legitimate reason. It is possible to be too avant-garde. Completely original ideas without pre-existing competitors are difficult businesses to start. On top of everything a new business must do right to succeed, you really don’t want to add “educate the customer” to your TO DO...
In his book, Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation, Steven Johnson talks about the “adjacent possible”. The adjacent possible, as the name suggest, entails all the near-collision ideas that might form with a simple, first-order combinations of previously existing concepts, ideas, products or services. Although important, the adjacent possible requires no monumental leaps...
All good business ideas must create something that people want. That is, there must be demand for what you intend to do. For this, your business concept must either: Solve a problem that customers are willing to pay to solve.Reduce the cost of a process or productIncrease the efficiency of a process by reducing the time or expense to make a product or to provide a service Create an opportunity...
Just as my experience with PEI was the culmination of applying an interest in databases with my experience in finance, your best ideas will likely come from your area of expertise. This is where you have the greatest chance of executing successfully. From within your area of expertise, your idea will either be a product/service/tool you wish you had, or it will be a more efficient way/process of...