There was a walk-through house of the future at the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair. While not specifically referencing “streaming movies,” the resident housewife walking alongside the audience on the house side of the railing referred to a watching guide, decided which shows to watch, and when, then punched the buttons to start a show on the amazing television of the future.*
They may have mentioned what sort of technology could support that, but if so my six year old self did not retain it. So the basic, basic idea is older than 1970, possibly much older.
*She may have had to phone her selections in to the station. It’s been awhile.
Yep. An important field in our custom CRM system is the customer-seriousness entry, which has an (essentially) “customer-is-crazy” option for our sales guys to choose, since we get more than a few calling us up to waste time.
Another related favourite is the feasibility study invoice; if pressed, we’ll make a report on what we expect major hurdles to be, existing competition, cost estimates, delivery dates, etc. You’d be surprised that some customers are surprised that they have to pay us for that work, after it helps them come to their senses when it exposes their idea as half-baked, expensive to implement, and already available on shelves now in a better form.
Yeah, that is a problem. The Patent department, like too many other Americans, don’t understand software, so they think if you can think it, you can do it. But like everything else, there are 10,000 ways to do it, and mechanical patents are all about the WAY you do it.
Co-worker of mine is an older Italian guy. Genovese, not the stereotypical Sicilian/Calabrian. Working with him over the past several years has taught me a very, very valuable word that few people seem to know about. That word?
“No.”
seriously. a curt “no” shuts down a lot of bullshit. The recipient might think you’re “rude” now, but it avoids a lot of anguish later when they wail on about how you’ve been “stringing them along.”
It works, it really does. “Do you want to go turnip picking with us?” “No.” “Hey, you’re a mechanic, can you fix my car this weekend?” “No.” “Want to see my video of my son’s piano recital?” “No.”
proper response: “OK, I won’t tell you ‘no,’ I’ll tell you to go f**k yourself.”
I had this conversation with part of my upstream line management:
Pointy-Haired Boss: Send client X a link to our App
Me: You mean the website?
PHB: No, the App
Me: We don’t have an App
PHB: Yes we do
Me: No, we really don’t
PHB: Make one
Me: Make an App?
PHB: Quick as you can. I’ve already promised it to Client X
Me: This could be a problem - we don’t currently have the capabilities to develop an app. Also, what would you want it to actually do?
PHB: I want it to be an App. We should have an App. Make an App!
It went on like that for a long time. In the end, it turned out that he didn’t want an app at all - he’d seen someone else save the shortcut to our website as a desktop icon on their Android phone.
You see this on the boards, too. Quite regularly, someone will post asking about how to patent/sell an idea to some big company and become rich. And then we have to go break it to them that, despite how clever they think they are, they are not going to succeed with this plan.
Invariably, they’re super cagey about actually telling you what the idea is. Because of course once they tell you, you’ll just run away and make all those millions yourself. There’s a gap in understanding here, since obviously they’re going to have to tell people what the idea is in order to implement it. They often seem to think that they get some giant company to sign an NDA with them, which will of course not happen, because why would a giant company care what some rando has to say, or subject themselves to the legal risk that an NDA carries.
He also points out that, generally, the hard part of a great idea is convincing people it’ll work at all. Obviously good and original ideas are pretty rare. Many great startups only look like great ideas in hindsight.
My favorite send up of this concept: “You’re an architect? I have a great idea for a building.”
It was also, more specifically, a Scott Adams blog.
“You’d be hard pressed to come up with an idea so bad that it couldn’t succeed with the right execution. And it would be even harder to imagine a great idea that couldn’t fail if the execution were left to morons.”
So far I have refrained from asking what I would need them for if I had and idea for a million dollar website.
Mostly because I don’t want to alienate them in the unlikely event they come up with an idea for a million dollar website that I can develop for them. Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while.
Yeah I’m broadening the thread now by providing updates.
Stupid idea with AR and VR and pixies and dreams
I forwarded some info on planning a game project to my friend, and she said she was too busy working on her startup to read them.:smack:
Bear in mind the most disappointing thing about her pitch was that she’s supposedly been working on it for two months. Two months to deliver an idea that, if we were brainstorming, wouldn’t make the cut of “brainstorming ideas coherent enough to bother to write on the whiteboard”.
Doritos eating contest
The other idea I didn’t mention before because it’s actually not bad, and he has written up a business plan and seems to have some investment in place.
(It’s not a Doritos eating contest, I am just using that in place of giving the real details ;))
Problem is, the business does rely on using Doritos specifically, no other products, and even mentioning Doritos in their sample promotional materials. And I’m not seeing any TMs anywhere.
IOW it doesn’t look like he’s approached Frito-Lay for permission. So even if the idea is a potential money-spinner, it could die overnight if he doesn’t get permission, or they demand very high royalties.
I’m officially “out” of the Doritos project now though, and the crazy idea I will tell her the next time she wants to meet.
Indeed, it’s funny when people make such requests. Write me an application or a website, you are a programmer do something. I usually tell them to read here ( Can I Build A Mobile Start-up With No Technical Background? | Software Development Company ) or go to a similar company :smack::smack::smack::D. Many of them were offended:confused:. But if you have a really good idea that will bring millions, pay the company and enjoy your application. Seriously. I believe that it is not necessary to mix friendship and work. This can have very bad consequences.
It shuts up people right quick when I say my preferred language is QBASIC, which interprets psycho-fast on modern hardware. They don’t need to know that part because I want to scare them off. And GOTO exists in most assembly languages, where it wasn’t Dijkstra’d out. A perfectly cromulent command. :mad:
Really? I cannot believe it took more than ten minutes to create the in-game art of Rogue, a personal fave. Note: My TRS-80 Model 1 was decked out with a full 48k, but came with a 4k, block-graphics chess program that creamed me…always. I know it reflects terribly on me as a chessplayer, but I prefer to think of it as superior coding. :o
In the old days I’d’ve killed for that, though it would usually describe the boss. Now I’d settle for a “customer is senile option.” Once upon a time I had skills. Now I have the week off because I can’t sell dental coverage to people plan to be buried with the same dentures.
Tut tut! In a proper brainstorming session there are NO bad ideas! They all go on the whiteboard and are dismissed in the next step. The amount of sarcasm depends on how cute she is.
Well some of the specifics of the idea, which sadly I can’t go into, make this less clear-cut.
But anyway my friend told me he has asked for, and got, Frito-Lay’s permission.
So I unfortunately need to contradict my own OP a little: I have at least one friend whose business idea seems sound enough. Apart from the red flag of him approaching me to implement the thing single-handedly, the rest checks out.
Not that this means it will be a success, but it’s not pie in the sky, like the other ideas.
Yes, I should have said “…coherent enough to be able to write on a whiteboard”. All ideas are valid, but we’ve all been there when an idea comes out that makes no sense in terms of the question being asked, and you have no idea how to write it.
And yeah she’s cute, and single. But of course at this point I’m glad we’re just friends. I can give her some advice but firmly say I’m not joining the project. And still feel like a good guy.
I believe that it is not necessary to mix friendship and work. This can have very bad consequences.
The amount of sarcasm depends on how cute she is.