Inline #keywords are useful

Memiary's design involves using inline keywords to tag a post which i think is a fantastic idea.
Inlining in general is a better because it lowers friction.

A swipe tool for before-after images

A swipe tool and some tinting are extremely effective for before-after visualizations.
See here for implementation.

A peer-to-peer search engine named YaCy

YaCy is a fantastic idea - a mature peer to peer search engine.

• Home: http://yacy.net/en/index.html
• Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YaCy

What is the complementary product of teaching?

Suppose we develop a firm that offers classes at very low cost and recoup the cost in other ways.
E.g. teach how to setup web sites but recoup the cost from affiliate marketing of DNS and webhosts.
Or teach programming for free - sell laptopss.

Teach cooking for free, sell ingredients.

Buy a large plot of land.
Establish a free center of study.
Make money from rentals.

Complementary Products

The notion of complementary products are very helpful in generating product ideas.

Preconditions for a self-organizing system based on Lyapunov Functions

Self-organizing systems based on Lyapunov Functions

Lyapunov functions can explain how a city/system self-organizes.

Consider Disneyland with 5 rides and 5 customers. Each ride can only service one customer.

• Each customer first waits at the gate and writes down the sequence of rides they plan to take
• Once the gate opens, each customer goes to the first ride on their list
• If more than one customer goes to the same ride, then someone have to wait and a ride somewhere is empty.
• To avoid waiting, customers in queue will then choose rides with no queue.
• This behaviour collectively result in every ride being occupied and no queues.
• The system self-organizes.

Pre-conditions for self-organization

However, self-organization happens only if certain preconditions are true:

1. Perfect information - e.g. all customers know exactly which rides are empty (say within visual range)
2. No cost to switching - e.g. customer can switch to another ride without cost
3. No barriers to switching - e.g. all customer can switch to any other ride at any time
4. No externalities - e.g. customers behaviour are independent, one taking a ride does not affect another taking a ride

Consider if the the opposite conditions hold:

1. Imperfect information
• e.g. customers cannot see which rides are empty (e.g. rides are in housed the buildings) so they'd rather continue queuing rather than risk going to another ride which may have a longer queue
2. Costly switching
• e.g. rides are very far apart and to walk to the next nearest ride takes half a day - then customers may rather stay put
3. Barriers to switching
• e.g. rides are segregated to VIP zone and normal zone - normal customer cannot access VIP rides even if they are empty.
4. Externalities
• e.g. when Customer A is a sloppy person and leaves behind a trail of food and grime everywhere - other customers will then be reluctant to go on a rides that Customer A has been on

Other examples of self-organizing systems

• Checkout queues in a hypermarket encourages self-organizing customers
• Consider what happens if the checkout queues are split into 3 separate groups
• Multi-storey parking buildings with the number of free slots at each floor prominently displayed
• Drivers get better information and make better decisions
• Consider a crowded parking building with zero information

Structure, Behaviour, and Presentation

The separation of a system's internal structure, behaviour and external presentation is inherent in application domains:

• GUI Applications: Model-View-Controller
• structure = Model, behaviour = Controller, presentation = View
• Web Applications: HTML, CSS, Javascript
• structure = HTML, behaviour = Javascript, presentation = CSS
• HtDW Applications: Data definitions, Function definitions,
• structure = data, behaviour = function, presentation = missing

Structure is  internal.
Presentation is external.

A Decision Tree App

A Decision Tree App

Create an app that uses a decision tree to help make decisions.
Everything is either an event or an outcome.

Events

• must have an associated name
• may have an associated cost
• may have an associated time duration

Outcomes

• must have an associated payoff
• must have an associated probability
• may have an associated time duration

A mashup of:

• Decision Trees from Model Thinking
• App building from Creative Programming
• Time Value of Money from Introduction to Finance

Problems mean Opportunities

Problems mean opportunities

Dan Ariely, the author of Predictably Irrational has developed several apps which are a direct outcome of his research.

So here's the idea/challenge. Go and look up some great research and create appealing apps that rely on those laws of nature.

Problems mean opportunities.

Six Shifts Affecting the Digital Consumer

How should you align your game to cater or capture opportunities in the following shifts?
If the shift has not yet happened, how can you accelerate it?

Six Shifts

• Devices
• From PCs to mobile and touch devices
• Communications
• From voice to data and video
• Content
• From bundled to fragmented
• Social media
• From growth to monetization
• Video
• From programmed to user driven
• Retail
• From channel to experience

Source

• Developing a fine-grained look at how digital consumers behave

Kickstarting Thailand's Solar Rooftop Industry

Kickstarting the Thailand Solar Rooftop Industry

Solar roof market is under-developed and it should be further developed.
Raise funds to generate an alternative market:

• Sell rooftop solar products (economy of scale)
• Provide soft loans
• Buy power
• Produce power

In The News

• 13 Jul 2013: Incentive Scheme for solar rooftops ready for launch
• 29 May 2013: Making the Switch
• 09 May 2013: Major boost for Thailand rooftop solar sector

Lyapunov functions, slavery and corruption

Is is possible to construct a Lyapunov function for the eradication of slavery?
Can a similar model be employed for the eradication of corruption?

Crowd sourced surveyors

Suppose you live in Bangkok and you need to go visit a building site in Nakhon Si Thammarat.
You could either fly or drive there or employ a local to take a few pictures for you.

Or someone tells you about this place which is for sale.
You could either spend 20 minutes for a drive there or you could employ someone to take pictures for you e.g. 3 sets of pictures: morning, evening and night. Anyone with a camera and internet connection can do this.

It's similar to a mechanical turk but geographically diverse.

Better still, a robot with:

1. cameras to replace your eyes
2. internet connection - to transmit images
3. GPS receiver & transmitter in case it gets lost
4. simple translator that says

Create a business to do this: online surveying.

Dynamic means real-time

Whenever you see the word dynamic think real-time.
If something can be dynamic, then it can be real-time.

Compare a physical newspaper that you hold in your hand vs an online newspaper though this can sometimes be blurred.

Examples:

• Clothing hangers shows Facebook likes.

Replace money transfer services with crowd money changers

Consider the following scenario:

1. M needs to transfer money from a bank account in Malaysia to a bank account in Thailand
2. T needs to transfer money from a bank account in Thailand to a bank account in Malaysia
3. They both go to a bank/Western Union to make the transfer and get charged service fees and exchange rate costs

Consider an alternative scenario:

1. M needs to transfer money from a bank account in Malaysia to a bank account in Thailand
2. T needs to transfer money from a bank account in Thailand to a bank account in Malaysia
3. M transfers money to T's bank account in Malaysia
4. T transfers money to M's bank account in Thailand
5. That would be ideal if the amount transferred match exactly
6. Enter X who has accounts in Malaysia and Thailand
1. M transfers money to X's account in Malaysia
2. T transfers money to X's account in Thailand
3. X transfers money to M's account in Thailand
4. X transfers money to T's account in Malaysia
7. X provides two service:
1. Escrow
2. Market matching

Essentially, I should be able to transfer money between Thailand and Malaysia cheaply.

Geo-spatial Land Price Database

Build a database of land prices with geospatial maps.

• Information supply, transactors can upload information and receive credits.
• Information demand, searchers/investors can spend credits and obtain aggregate information.

Usage scenarios;

1. Sellers search for information about value of their properties when estimating value
2. Buyers search for information about value of properties before buying

A more generic application of this idea is to replace all government/public information services that we currently pay for with cheaper crowd-generated data.

Developing rural alpha to kickstart growth

What if someone brought the best technologies to intermediate rural areas to raise the level of information access and technologies.

The key elements - internet access and education to raise knowledge, create work.

Creating work - like Amazon Mechanical Turk.

Ideas:

• Build a Tour web-site by the locals using geotagged pictures.
• Best pictures are upvoted Stack-overflow style
• Instead of Google car, mount cameras on a bicycle and update Google maps or Open street map.

Funding:

• Get it from Tourism Authority of Thailand

The Death of the PC, The Internet of Things and Ubiquitous Computing

What does the future hold for computing?

The most profound technologies are those that disappear

I think the future will inevitably be ubiquitous computing. The comparison of literacy and computing is interesting in Mark Weiser's 1991 Scientific American article.

What does it mean for education?

If the future of computing is ubiquitous computing, then what kind of education is relevant? Children are taught literacy which increases their ability to function effectively in the world. What kind of computing literacy will allow humans to function effectively in the future?

Perhaps a useful way is to examine the written word. There are producers, consumers and technologists. Consumers are simply people who read written works, basically anyone who can "consume" words and make sense of their meaning.

Producers are people who produce the written works, the authors, editors and bloggers. They are masters at juxtaposing the different elements to produce works that consumers value.

Technologists are people who connect producers and consumers. Technologists make it possible for a single producer to reach many consumers and for a single consumer to consume the works of many producers. Historically, technologists are makers of clay tablets, printers, book publishers and these days, Wordpress and Blogger. Technologists play an essential simplification role by removing complexities for producers and consumers. Authors do not need to know how books get published to write great works and neither do consumers. Similarly, bloggers do not need to know how Wordpress works to blog.

What does it mean to be a producer, a consumer and a technologist in the world of ubiquitous computing?

References

1. Death of the PC
2. Ubiquitous Computing
3. The Computer for the 21st Century
4. Tools for Thought

 

Say Yes to Things You Know Nothing About

I said yes, because that's how life should be, you should say yes to things you don't know anything about rather than things you know about because it makes you learn.

Investing Right is a form of Value Creation

To invest correctly is to give resources to ideas/projects that are impactful and that will create huge value.

To invest time, money and effort in projects that will create value is the responsibility of owners of these resources. This is the lesson I've learn from the Introduction to Finance course.

As a business owner, allocate resources (capital) to ideas/projects that will create value. Do not allocate resources to ideas that destroy value.

As an investor, invest (i.e. allocate capital) in businesses (ideas/projects) that create lasting value. Do not allocate resources to businesses that destroy value

Finance is a mindset that allows us to value ideas/projects.

I'm beginning to have some inkling of what Warren Buffett might be weighing when making capital allocation decisions.

What is a firm?

What is a firm/company?

1. Start with an idea/project
2. A collection of ideas/projects is a firm/company
3. Value creation only through good ideas/projects
4. How to determine what is a good idea/project or a good firm/company?

An idea's cashflow is the idea's signature. The idea and it's cash flows are the same thing. Idea and benefit and cost are the same thing because if you can't combine the two, an idea is meaningless.

Walmart is a collection of ideas

Walmart is not selling something different. Walmart is a collection of ideas of how to sell the same things differently - and in the process creating huge value.

Small compounding business improvements

Compounding is awesome. How can the power of compounding be applied to business?

What if we set a goal to improve every aspect of the business by a small percentage every year, say 6% every year. The iron law of compounding assures us that if we can sustain those improvement for 12 years, the business will be twice as good.

Small sustained improvements = awesome long-term success. That's the application of compounding.

Compounding is an order of magnitude better

Compounding is better

Compounding is not just better, but it is orders of magnitude better.

Choose the idea that compounds

Occasionally, we are faced with choosing between two alternatives which are both better than the status quo. But which is the better alternative. Compounding offers one way out i.e. amongst competing ideas that are better, choose the one that compounds.

Compounding

Compounding

"Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it ... he who doesn't ... pays it.' ~Albert Einstein

Compounding is typically taught in finance courses. For example, 100 years ago, your great-grandparents wanted to invest $100 and they could choose to invest either in stocks at 10% returns or in bonds at 5% returns. As their grandchild about to receive the inheritance which would you prefer? Turns out the difference is about two orders of magnitude i.e. 13 ('000) vs 1300 ('000). If you're thinking about saving up for your great-grandparents, this could be relevant.

As Einstein says, compounding is a really, really powerful idea.

Reusable Building Blocks

Reusable Building Blocks

Reusable logic offers predictability and performance enhancements over time. Predictability comes from standardization while increasing performance comes from competition.

Example: Code Libraries

The Standard C library is a standardized collection of header files and library routines used to implement common operations, such as input/output and character string handling. Users of the library can rely on the functionality provided and build on top of that functionality thus becoming more productive. The performance of the library can also be enhanced over time by developers of the library and these performance enhancements benefits all users.

Example: Game Engines

A game engine is a system designed for the creation and development of video games. Developers can rely on the functionality provided and build on top of that functionality thus becoming more productive. The performance of the game engine can also be enhanced and all users of the engine benefits.

Example: Amazon Web Services

Amazon Web Services offers a complete set of infrastructure and application services that enable you to run virtually everything in the cloud: from enterprise applications and big data projects to social games and mobile apps.

See also:

1. http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/C_Programming/Standard_libraries
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_engine
3. http://aws.amazon.com/

To engage, ask not tell

To engage, ask, not tell

In a recent forum, I posted info on commitment strategies with related links thinking that it will be of value to fellow readers. However, few readers viewed the post.

The lesson is that framing what I know as a question draws people in and engages people. Simply telling people what I know will simply elicit a "Hmmm." response. If I write as if I already know all the answers, what incentive is there for others to participate?

Furthermore, posing questions opens up the discussion, draws more interesting perspectives and perhaps everyone will gain deeper insight that way.

More specifically, instead of stating what I know about commitment strategies, I could have instead posed what I know by asking if what I know is valid. That would invite others to participate and join in the conversation.

To engage, ask, not tell. 

Use binding commitment to influence our future actions and others present actions

SparkNotes Condensed:

Odysseus is heading home after the Trojan war and needed to pass the lovely but dangerous Sirens. He was advised by Circe on how to negotiate this obstacle. As Odysseus and his sailors approach the island of the lovely Sirens, Odysseus, plugs his men’s ears with beeswax and has them tying him to the mast of the ship leaving him able to hear the Siren's song's. The Sirens’ song is so seductive that Odysseus begs to be released from his fetters, but his faithful men only bind him tighter.

Inventing the Future

Commitment strategies are all about changing future payoffs to influence present actions - those of our own and those of others.

The future gets invented because we make it so.

References

• The Odyssey Books 12-14 - SparkNotes
• The battle between your present and future self - TED Talk by Daniel Goldstein
• The Odysseus Option - Slate article
• Odysseus, Precommitment, and the Siren Song - Hack The system article

Markov Transition Probabilities

Using Transition Probabilities

Markov Transition Probabilities has been applied to:

• who wrote a book
• medical diagnosis evaluation
• is there likely to be a war

Using the full Markov Process Model

Markov Convergence Theorem has been applied to:

• voter turnout
• school enrollment

Reference

• Model Thinking Lecture 10.5 Exapting the Markov Model

Choosing A Perspective

Perspective is how you represent a problem.

If we represent a problem as a Markov process, then we'll look for finite states, we'll try to determine transition probabilities and so on.

Redefinition of Meritocracy by The Habari Project

Redefinition of Meritocracy

I like the definition of meritocracy found on the homepage of The Habari Project.

Habari is a vibrant open source project that embraces the concept of Meritocracy. In a nutshell, if you are a positive force in the community you are given more authority. This applies to people from all walks of life, not just developers. We are always looking for help in one of the following areas.

Which contrasts with the usual definition of meritocracy:

1. A system in which advancement is based on individual ability or achievement.
2. 1. A group of leaders or officeholders selected on the basis of individual ability or achievement.
   2. Leadership by such a group.

Solution to What Problem?

This Habari Project's definition of meritocracy solves, for me, the issue of who should be given more authority.

Question: Who should be given authority
Answer: Those who are a positive force in the community

Inspiration for this blog

Why this blog?

This blog is about ideas and how ideas collide and recombine to produce innovation.

The name of the blog is inspired by the Large Hadron Collider where different streams of energy particles are smashed together to produce wonderfully new stuff. The image in my mind is having two streams of ideas colliding together, generating massive new ideas and innovation.

The main inspiration is from the Model Thinking course lecture, "9.5 Recombination" that describes how innovations comes from recombination of ideas. And as lecture 8 describes, innovation is essential to growth.

Where does innovation come from?
It comes from diversity of perspectives and heuristics and recombination of those ideas.

Blog Content

My goal is to write about ideas and how ideas are combined and in the process hope to sharpen my intuition about how to recombine ideas.
The other idea is to generalize from specific recombinations to generic recombination methods and so that I can then apply these generic recombination methods to other ideas.

References:

• Coursera | Wordpress - Model Thinking Course
• Gifts of Athena