Imagine Jeff Bezos offered you 100 of his top people (engineers, designers, product ...) for 100 days and told you that you could work on whatever you wanted.
The only condition is that at the end of the 100 days you need to start paying salaries in order to retain these people.
A portable personal Internet server that runs as a turnkey no-user-maintenance image on AWS, Digital Ocean, and OpenStack. It hosts your email, federated social networking and chat, file sharing and ad-blocking web proxy. The user experience is pure Internet with no ads, surveillance or vendor lock-in, all for $6/mo (hosting + DNS).
This is an idea I've been toying with several times, but it never gets beyond the thinking stage because of the obstacles interacting with the rest of the world: getting at least two cloud provider accounts (one for regular operations and one for secure off-site backups, ideally with a different provider), estimating costs (because good luck actually calculating them), buying a domain and transferring it to the cloud provider, the intricacies of configuring email to not be black-holed immediately by other providers (something I only know from rumours), and I'm sure a host of others. Even an effort to make some of these things slightly easier would be most welcome, but I don't think 10,000 work days is enough to get something like this to a "turnkey" level. It would be absolutely the best to be proven wrong, though!
You think the ability to work remotely is a more significant health-benefit than tackling water-shortages, obesity, drugs, and climate change?
It is OK to have a niche, and to use hyperbole, but when it comes to human health and happiness I'm certain there are more significant issues which are real, and growing, than where somebody works (if they can, must, or even do have a job).
I would focus on patterns for remote collaboration (structured and searchable chat, VR hangouts) combined with old-fashioned face time (monthly or quarterly in-person activities).
I would have them train 2 people (each) in their field to be as good (if not better) than they are. At the end of 100 days, I'll have 200 people trained by Jeff Bezo's top people. These 200 people will be tasked with building a learning system / school that teaches these skills to underprivileged communities for free. Each school would be named after each of the original 100 top people.
I'll keep tabs on each of the 100 top people and ask them for donations every year to keep their schools alive. If they don't (and we ran out of money), we'll close down the schools.
Ask all 100 of them the same question, but they get 4 people instead of 100, collect the top 20 best results, give those 20 folks leadership over a team of 4 people, making a total of 20 teams of 5.
Statistically at least one or two of those teams is likely to come up with a highly profitable idea.
I see only one flaw. Who choses these top 20 results? Maybe he cannot imaging how something could be profitable. I'm kidding but it's an interesting thought. Thanks for that.
First off, I'm crossing my fingers it was actually a drunk Jeff Bezos who posted this :D
I hit on a new general scheme for structuring programming tools and languages that doesn't use parsing, and I'd love to try building a language and editor on it. I've seen other people working on these syntax-free, no parsing schemes, but I've yet to see one whose fundamental structure is simple enough to be captured by a simple diagram, or just a few sentences; and that's what I'm lookin' at here, which leaves me endlessly curious about the potential significance of this thing (including the potential for its significance to be nothing!)—but I haven't had a chance yet to give it a real test.
So if I had the resources I'd do a bunch of iterations on it—likely with ~10 teams working on parallel iterations if I had 100 people. Actually, I'd start with just one team of 10 working on it, and if it continued looking promising after the first iteration, and add more teams in proportion to the perceived promise. Meanwhile, I've got plenty other (over)ambitious projects I'd like to have help with :)
Auction the team as a resource to the highest bidder. I'm not positioned to deploy this resource effectively, so I'm likely to benefit most by trading it to a buyer who can't convert money into talent fast enough.
The team is much more valuable to someone who can afford to pay long-term salaries and needs this talent resource quickly on an up-front basis (Tesla, Uber, a startup trying to crush their competitor, etc.)
The people, by themselves, wouldn't be enough. Let's assume we have the people AND the kind of resources 100 people working at Amazon would have.
Then I would have them work on a multi-pronged project to get a higher percent of people in the US voting.
One team would be campaigning in all states against laws that make it hard to vote.
Another team would be finding the most cost-effective ways to register voters, educate voters accurately about what each candidate represents and has done, and get them to the polls.
Of course there are going to be folks who claim that it's too political. There is one party that seems to benefit from preventing voting participation and fairness...
I would have them prototype a new computer language + ide for it
This language would have usability in mind as well as throwing out established assumptions. For example, that source code should be ascii text. Or that anyone should decide between tabs/spaces.
Develop a non profit program to bring tech skills to disadvantaged communities so they can get basic remote work jobs and put food on the table. Key word: 'bring'.
It wouldn't make any money at all, but it might change some lives.
I'd let them go. Keep the best 5. Or have a contest where you narrow the field down to 5.
100 people fresh for 100 days is a disaster. If you're lucky they'd all ignore one another, group into small teams, and find their own way to do cool stuff.
3-people teams can grow into 100-people teams that do some awesome things. 100-people teams dropped in from the sky are trouble. I've seen it done. It's rarely productive.
As a theoretical experiment it’s interesting. But it would never ever work. You’d literally spend a year or more trying to prepare for that 100 days and I’m still not convinced you’d get anything out of it.
Now, if you were going to give me 6 people that would be a different story. With 6 people I have a number of startup ideas that I would love to work on and I think I could get a working mvp out of in 100 days.
As of today it would be around health care billing for small to medium sized US based medical practices encompassing ehr, billing, office management, and cash flow management. Not exciting but it’s what I’d be doing.
You could make 16 teams of 6 and give each one a different startup idea. You could then create some metric for success and then choose to continue to work on the one with the most success.
Agreed. I have no idea how to manage 100 people, nor how to utilize 100 people in any effective way.
I guess I would be hacking the challenge by holding some clumsy event on the first day or two where we sorted into 5 to 20 different teams, and then got to work on a lot of things in parallel. And then people could switch around between teams as interested or as they might use their skills.
If you're actually interested there are a few companies taking this on such as Athenahealth and DrChrono, both EHRs for small to mid-sized companies. Or if you want to focus on healthcare billing, you should check out Cedar, which focuses on large systems.
I'd probably have them work on finding as many zero-day vulnerabilities as possible - after the 100 days I'd probably keep the top 5-10 performers on salary if I was able to make enough money from the research.
I would take them away from what they have known and done for years and years. I would finally take their skill and ambition seriously. They will work on a goal that is beyond what they could even imagine when they learned and studied and improved their knowledge while others partied and explored sex and drugs .
Bacause for me, they would be figuring out how to have more people click on my ads.
Build an app that would remind you about things to do when you are in the vicinity.
Rational: there are plenty of things in my live I should do that are not time based, but location based. Post a package to a friend: when close to a postoffice. Buy shaving foam, when close to a supermarket. Buy these earrings, when close to that jewelry shop where she pointed them out to you. Buy flowers, when close to a flower shop. See that exhibition, when walking by. Visit a friend, when close.
Include the option for businesses to send you sweet deals when close and you'd be making money to pay the salaries.
I would make them read everything there is to know on superconductivity (esp. high temperature superconductivity) and make them brainstorm ideas on how to get us closer to room temperature superconductors.
I'd probably work on a mobile phone, based on some sort of SBC like rPI Zero or the Chip Computer.
But I'd work more on the hardware than on the software: I want a physical keyboard like the one the Nokia N900 has and I want a physical kill-switch for the GSM/UMTS/whatever radio.
As for OS an apps, i always thought that some GNU/Linux distro with some small-device-optimized wm and good selinux per-app policies could work very very well.
A decentralized ecosystem for government and finances. It would be a good fit as the domain is B2B, working and partnering with governments and banking institutions (with a focus towards developing/third-world countries to jumpstart their standards of living). The ICO would ensure their salaries later.
I recently watched a video of Kevin Horton discussing creation of the Super NT, SNES on an FPGA. He mentions doing the same for the N64 would be extremely difficult. It's not gonna change the world, but it would be a fun challenge to throw some resources at.
Youre entitled to your own wishes, but really? Out of anything at all, you'd put 100 (talented) people to work for 100 days to implement an obsolete console in FPGA?
Have them turn on my youtube engineering vlog and work on something interesting. Self organize onto teams using a compatible approach. I’ve just a few months of lectures recorded, but I’d have them give me enough money to keep supplying them with vision.
Figure out what to do with people with IQ less than 90 that doesn’t involve turning them into landfill. Seriously. We have plenty of people who aren’t that academic and the world is increasingly leaving them behind. How do we usefully deploy them?
Figure out how to convince Jeff Bezos to use his money on endeavors that improve the lives of people on this planet rather than billionaire vanity projects like space rockets or newspapers.
I'd split them into 20 five-person teams have them each come up with a different prototype based on whatever best idea they can come up with as a group.
Probably something (or things) along the lines with helping out with the issues that low income families face, and more specifically the children and their education.
I would train them on liberal arts, philosophy & politics so that we have 100 techno-humanists able to connect more dots while thinking of the future of mankind.
Assuming everyone knows each other and is ready to work, I would introduce myself and my idea: A dating social network that uses genetics data as one of the criteria for matching people.
I will select the top managers in the group, assign each a responsibility, and then have them go into the crowd and build out their team to help accomplish that. I would have the best pitchmen go out and try to raise money from investors.
Everyone goes to work while I sit back in my chair and tent my fingers.
rustler|7 years ago
l0b0|7 years ago
ttul|7 years ago
anoncoward111|7 years ago
I would aim to create as many blueprints as possible for tools that can help more people live and work remotely and sustainably.
There is no greater threat to human health, human happiness, and human productivity, than there is in meaningless desk work and commuting.
stevekemp|7 years ago
It is OK to have a niche, and to use hyperbole, but when it comes to human health and happiness I'm certain there are more significant issues which are real, and growing, than where somebody works (if they can, must, or even do have a job).
rustler|7 years ago
songzme|7 years ago
I'll keep tabs on each of the 100 top people and ask them for donations every year to keep their schools alive. If they don't (and we ran out of money), we'll close down the schools.
warent|7 years ago
Statistically at least one or two of those teams is likely to come up with a highly profitable idea.
pvinis|7 years ago
westoncb|7 years ago
I hit on a new general scheme for structuring programming tools and languages that doesn't use parsing, and I'd love to try building a language and editor on it. I've seen other people working on these syntax-free, no parsing schemes, but I've yet to see one whose fundamental structure is simple enough to be captured by a simple diagram, or just a few sentences; and that's what I'm lookin' at here, which leaves me endlessly curious about the potential significance of this thing (including the potential for its significance to be nothing!)—but I haven't had a chance yet to give it a real test.
So if I had the resources I'd do a bunch of iterations on it—likely with ~10 teams working on parallel iterations if I had 100 people. Actually, I'd start with just one team of 10 working on it, and if it continued looking promising after the first iteration, and add more teams in proportion to the perceived promise. Meanwhile, I've got plenty other (over)ambitious projects I'd like to have help with :)
ericjang|7 years ago
The team is much more valuable to someone who can afford to pay long-term salaries and needs this talent resource quickly on an up-front basis (Tesla, Uber, a startup trying to crush their competitor, etc.)
gitgud|7 years ago
Why waste valuable resources, when someone more capable could utilize them.
chipuni|7 years ago
Then I would have them work on a multi-pronged project to get a higher percent of people in the US voting.
One team would be campaigning in all states against laws that make it hard to vote.
Another team would be finding the most cost-effective ways to register voters, educate voters accurately about what each candidate represents and has done, and get them to the polls.
r00fus|7 years ago
raverbashing|7 years ago
This language would have usability in mind as well as throwing out established assumptions. For example, that source code should be ascii text. Or that anyone should decide between tabs/spaces.
adamnemecek|7 years ago
frozenport|7 years ago
peterwwillis|7 years ago
Develop a non profit program to bring tech skills to disadvantaged communities so they can get basic remote work jobs and put food on the table. Key word: 'bring'.
It wouldn't make any money at all, but it might change some lives.
DanielBMarkham|7 years ago
100 people fresh for 100 days is a disaster. If you're lucky they'd all ignore one another, group into small teams, and find their own way to do cool stuff.
3-people teams can grow into 100-people teams that do some awesome things. 100-people teams dropped in from the sky are trouble. I've seen it done. It's rarely productive.
singularity2001|7 years ago
patrickmay|7 years ago
TomMarius|7 years ago
trcollinson|7 years ago
Now, if you were going to give me 6 people that would be a different story. With 6 people I have a number of startup ideas that I would love to work on and I think I could get a working mvp out of in 100 days.
As of today it would be around health care billing for small to medium sized US based medical practices encompassing ehr, billing, office management, and cash flow management. Not exciting but it’s what I’d be doing.
posix_compliant|7 years ago
arthev|7 years ago
I guess I would be hacking the challenge by holding some clumsy event on the first day or two where we sorted into 5 to 20 different teams, and then got to work on a lot of things in parallel. And then people could switch around between teams as interested or as they might use their skills.
twunde|7 years ago
newman8r|7 years ago
neals|7 years ago
Bacause for me, they would be figuring out how to have more people click on my ads.
zaphirplane|7 years ago
agravier|7 years ago
zaphirplane|7 years ago
PappaPatat|7 years ago
Rational: there are plenty of things in my live I should do that are not time based, but location based. Post a package to a friend: when close to a postoffice. Buy shaving foam, when close to a supermarket. Buy these earrings, when close to that jewelry shop where she pointed them out to you. Buy flowers, when close to a flower shop. See that exhibition, when walking by. Visit a friend, when close.
Include the option for businesses to send you sweet deals when close and you'd be making money to pay the salaries.
scotty79|7 years ago
itomato|7 years ago
30% of that time or more would be spent on consensus building and chatter.
10% on LaCroix & Coffee runs.
5% on bio-breaks.
I'm left with about 60% of the original time, which I would have to spend on the problem of preserving the original allocation.
Certainly some software product would be the result, negating all the ritualized product management activities we hold dear.
It would require ego death for all involved, as well as the willingness to cast aside "reason" for the sake of gain.
miguelrochefort|7 years ago
znpy|7 years ago
But I'd work more on the hardware than on the software: I want a physical keyboard like the one the Nokia N900 has and I want a physical kill-switch for the GSM/UMTS/whatever radio.
As for OS an apps, i always thought that some GNU/Linux distro with some small-device-optimized wm and good selinux per-app policies could work very very well.
slimshady94|7 years ago
user7878|7 years ago
- We will have 100 MVP / POC after that (10 per domain)
- Create 2 teams in each domain to develop 2 product for each domain out of all best thing from MVP
- We will have 20 product in which 10 will surely market leader
pro_zac|7 years ago
itomato|7 years ago
Think big.
harlanji|7 years ago
adiusmus|7 years ago
miguelrochefort|7 years ago
minikomi|7 years ago
oceanghost|7 years ago
gorbachev|7 years ago
potta_coffee|7 years ago
xellisx|7 years ago
bsvalley|7 years ago
analognoise|7 years ago
rartin|7 years ago
worldsayshi|7 years ago
phendrenad2|7 years ago
crb002|7 years ago
purplezooey|7 years ago
gameswithgo|7 years ago
DrNuke|7 years ago
toomuchtodo|7 years ago
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doctorless|7 years ago
kapauldo|7 years ago
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markhenderson|7 years ago
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shorty_|7 years ago
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matte_black|7 years ago
I will select the top managers in the group, assign each a responsibility, and then have them go into the crowd and build out their team to help accomplish that. I would have the best pitchmen go out and try to raise money from investors.
Everyone goes to work while I sit back in my chair and tent my fingers.
berbec|7 years ago
newman8r|7 years ago