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What problems can we solve? (Part 3)
By: Kevin Xu
As I said in a previous post, the purpose of a business should be to make meaning rather than to make money. Great companies create innovative solutions to some of the simplest problems. Google solved the search problem. Wikipedia solved the knowledge problem. And Facebook solved the connection problem. They each established their solutions into a unique niche which benefited everyone else and in return benefited them.
So what problems are left that we can solve? I’m not afraid to list them off because competition is always going to be there no matter what niche we decide to enter. Unless we come up with a niche that no one has entered yet, then we might keep that a secret ;D
Sleep- People today of all ages need more sleep. Some people have no problem waking up early but most people do like the idea of sleeping for 12 hours straight. With the way today’s society works (early work hours, few breaks, exhausted nights) it seems like there’s no time to sleep. It seems like a continuous cycle of dragging yourself out of bed, trying to make it through the whole day, and then overloaded with work at home so you don’t get enough sleep for the next day. Why do we make ourselves suffer through this and can a web-based startup fix this?
Stress- Kinda goes with the sleep problem but more to do with the human psyche. Whether it is taking a test, submitting a report, or public speaking, people get very nervous these days and stressed. It all comes down to the fact that we care too much. If you were speaking to a teddy bear, you wouldn’t be stressed at all but if you spoke to George Bush (kinda like an oversized teddy bear) you would be a little more stressed. So can a web-based startup fix this?
Organization- One of my personal strengths is organization and from that, I can see how messy a lot of other people’s lives are. Web-based programs have tried and tried again to devise a solution to this but can we come up with something that works?
Tech-savvyness- A lot of people in this world still aren’t tech-savvy and think a computer is doing ‘magic’. They believe it is only the nerds and geeks that know the inner workings of a computer but everyone is able to know how it works. People don’t necessarily need to know how it works but how to use it to its full capacity. Maybe a culmination of the inner workings of the web?
Boredom- There are also the people in this world that are bored a lot. They need a meaningless distraction of fun for them to get through the day. Besides conventional forms of entertainment like movies or games, maybe they need something even more meaningless?
Money- Yeah, everyone still wants money…
I guess when it comes down to it, it’s all about productivity. Google made searching easier and quicker and so does Wikipedia and Facebook for what they do. Easier and quicker. Making life easier and quicker seems the viable solution to all these problems.
So these are just a few of the problems I could think of at this moment. There are bounds more and maybe I’ll add them to this post or make another post about it. Until then, stay tuned for Part 4- What are the solutions to these problems?
Previously:
Why form a startup? (Part 1)
Why use web 2.0? (Part 2)
~Kevin X
November 17th, 2007 at 12:39 am
Finally, you’re getting somewhat on track to thinking about something.
Sleep: Okay, this first one was retarded. First of all, “most people do like the idea of sleeping for 12 hours straight?” Are you fucking kidding me? Twelve hours of sleep is VERY unnatural for human beings. 0-5yr olds may sleep for 12 hours or more, but 6-10 year olds optimally sleep for 10 or 11 hours. Teenagers should sleep about 10 hours, and then optimal sleeping time gradually decreases as one ages until, at the age of 65 or so, it is about 6 1/2 hours. Besides, obviously you’re troubled by this problem. What hypocrisy. Maybe you shouldn’t be staying up late to write this pointless log? And a web-based start-up obviously can’t fix this… advice and such is how you fix this and well, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.
Stress: “It all comes down to the fact that we care too much.” I have to agree there. But obviously a web-based startup can’t help people with their stress. Only people can help themselves with their stress. The best way for me to de-stress is to force myself to do something that often gives me a lot of stress, and then focus on how little the outcome (good or bad) affected my life. Obviously, some things CAN actually affect your life. Then, hopefully you ARE stressed, because you DO need stress to make sure you don’t fuck up something important.
Organization: This is the only thing you listed which a web startup can help with. Wikipedia organized information. Gmail organizes my email. Apple Mail organizes ALL my email (though I wish I could have one central email account that was impervious to spam and could be used as both work and home). Apple Address Book organizes my contacts and serves as a bridge between physical location, electronic contact, phone, and everything. iCal organizes all my events that I have done in the past and plan to do in the future. To-dos and notes integrate between iCal and Mail. Schoolhouse (program for Mac) organizes my school grades. I organize my actual schoolwork with just folder hierarchy. GrandCentral is a neat phone program that calls all your phones if someone calls a number GrandCentral gives you (though, again, like with email, I wish I could truly have one number that would only ring the phone I have at the moment and there wouldn’t be a problem with the work/home boundary). I really like my Mac because not only does it organize so much stuff, it integrates all the information seamlessly. iPhoto organizes my photos, iTunes organizes my music, iMovie organizes the video I have taken and the movies I have made.
However, no matter how well something can organize your information, it still needs personal initiative or else a person will still fail to organize. How about EASILY synchronizing data between computers? Making crucial data available from anywhere with the internet? Integrating all this data? Google has done a good job so far of doing much of this, actually.
Tech-savvyness: This is kind of stupid and out of date. Especially with Apple (man I’m really promoting them here). Apple’s marketshare is increasing. Why? Because Apple makes computers make sense. That’s what they’re supposed to do. Everything is becoming easier, and that’s how technology should be. People simply need to understand the underlying idea of computers (what files are; where to find what actions; hierarchies and relationships of computer use; etc.)
Boredom: There are so many things meant to quell boredom (read: Halo). So many products are for entertainment. However, often, none of these things actually cure boredom. Only genuine interest in something can truly solve boredom. Lost cause for a startup.
Money: An online service called Mint actually organizes money. But that’s not what you mean. There’s no shortcut to earning money and you certainly can’t make a web service to give people money. SAVING money, now that’s different.
November 17th, 2007 at 6:01 pm
[...] good startup will provide a simple solution to an aggravating problem. In our last post we mentioned some of the problems in today’s world. In this post I will outline some ways we [...]