Type: Ideas

Ever wanted to have your writings edited by someone else? No, I’m not talking about some picky english major. I mean a normal person who can read over your writing. Like a second set of eyes.This would be awesome. Here’s how it would work:

Finish reading Peer Review WordPress Plugin

The extremely long John Mackey (CEO of Whole Foods) interview in the New Yorker inspired this piece.

Altruistic companies can be found in almost every vertical. In the clothing world, we have Toms Shoes who give away a pair of shoes for every pair sold. In the automotive industry, there is Tesla Motors who strive to make an all electric car for both the sports car enthusiasts and the everyday commuters. The financial industry is fairly bleak, but startups like Mint.com offer financial insight and easy advice for free. There are likely other examples in other industries, and I am going to make the big assumption that they exist and people like them. These may be tiny players, but they are beginning to blur the line between corporation and non-profit. But there isn’t quite the range of duality seen in these as there is in the healthcare industry.

Finish reading Conscious Capitalism and Making Money with Good

The web is a great place to argue with someone. I have occasionally wasted time doing so on the web and have learned that comments and forums are a disjointed place to prove a point. I think there could be a better way.

Finish reading Positive Internet Arguing

Here is the idea. Next time there is a big election, you simply offer people money not to vote. You go to the polls and say “How much would it take for you to not vote in this election?” Then you start handing out cash. This giant CNN Election Money Map shows that about $1 billion was raised during the last campaigns. This does not include money raised by candidates who lost in the primaries. The election results show that about 115 million people voted in the presidential election in 2008. If you split all of the money amongst the voters, that’s about $9 a person.

Finish reading Buying Votes Experiment

If you can’t say it in 250 characters or less, then create an online doc to share and link me, or call.

Twitter get’s close to this and Yammer is even closer by limiting it to only internal. But my idea basically breaks down sending long inter-office emails.

Finish reading 250-character Inter-Office Messaging

I am very excited when it comes to meeting and getting to know high quality people. I have only met a few, but I know there is some way to use the web to meet more. The current gamut of social networks are not exactly serving my needs in this area.

Finish reading HQP Network

WARNING: If you haven’t seen all of LOST through the Season 5 finale, stop reading and go rent some DVD’s.

So, here is the overarching theory to end all theories.

At the beginning of the Season 5 finale, we see Jacob talking with a man in a black shirt who says he wants to kill Jacob. I will refer to this man simply as Black. Black represents the evil spirit of the island, while Jacob is the good spirit.

Finish reading Epic LOST Theory

Here is a free business idea. If I knew anything about running a franchise like Jason’s Deli, I would run one of these instead. Below is the basic premise.

The Stock Market Sandwich Shop prices its sandwiches based on how well they are selling that day/week (maybe month). There would be a big board that would have prices fluctuation 5 to 10 cents every hour. There would be a ticker with symbols like CLUB and TURK that would show their current price and change over the last day. There would be price floors and ceilings built in so the program running the pricing wouldn’t go crazy. There could be an online component using google charts to show historical pricing. The menu’s would just have product descriptions without any pricing. And, there could be an override to have specials or promotions if necessary. But, the overall idea is to have

Finish reading Stock Market Sandwich Shop

Gmail has changed the way I do email in two crucial ways. 1st is tagging. It’s just like folders, but one email can be in multiple folders. For instance a message about creating an agenda can be in todo and meetings. Two tags, no folders, but I can see the tagged emails as if they were all in a folder together.

Finish reading The everything box

In more than one occasion at more than one job I have been asked to create a list of things I have done with the day. I view this as the most evil kind of busy work. Work by tracking your work? That’s like blogging about blogging (which I realize I did at the top). It seems that a computer could be able to tell me what I have done. It keeps track of the websites I visit, the emails I send, the files I save, and so on. It also keeps my calendar, and could say how long I was in meetings and who they were with. This is what computing power should be used for: tracking metrics and items that I am busy working on. Like an assistant who writes down what I do every hour. I think that was a plot on The Office.

Finish reading What are you working on?