Ideas

Idea-generation is one of my favourite pastimes. Executing on them is, unfortunately, not. I am much better at executing on things I fundamentally do not care about – “she’s good at getting shit done!” they say.

I figured it best to give home to my unfinished ideas, and let the universe decide what should be done with them. I believe an unfinished creation is better than no creation at all. email me if you disagree.

Here is my running list of ideas:

AGI Data Centre x Elderly Care Home Build Out – Europe should launch a massive buildout of data centers that also function as elderly care homes. This way, they can: a) join the AGI race b) address the impending elderly care home shortage c) finally have an excuse to invest in air conditioning – and centralize it in one place. Generally, I think we need more mixed-use spaces – day-care-elderly-homes, library-train-stations, museum-hospitals, etc. Society is too siloed.
Repaint and adorn all the ugly buildings in the world – Gather all the unemployed masses and prisoners and lost men and women of the modern world for the biggest craft workshop of all time. I imagine tearing down ugly buildings and rebuilding them would be too costly, but surely we could repaint the walls to something more colourful, add some ornamental details around the windows, doors and shutters, add some greenery??? Maybe we should also do a mass study on the psyches of the architects of the world, I imagine their collective outputs are a reflection of their collective inner worlds.
Reimagine education and bring back mid-life college / apprenticeships – Too many people are in the wrong careers, and career switches past 35 are tough – surely we can just speedrun having people become architects, craftsmen, or nurses, or whatever. Does this really need to take 4-5-6-7 years??? Has anyone tried getting this done more quickly?? Can we setup a mid-life apprenticeship program? I’m torn on this one because I think a central modern ill is that we try to speedrun too much, but I also think speedrunning can be done well, with care.
Give me aesthetic power over all the hospitals of the world – Let’s add some colour, some soul, some real art to these devoid halls. Visiting my dad in the hospital the other day, it struck me how the 8th floor with warm orange flooring was infinitely superior and more homey to the washed grey/blue of the rest of the hospital. I imagine some simple aesthetic improvements could single-handedly raise life expectancy rates (modern man vastly underestimates the importance of aesthetics). I’ve only ever been to one doctor’s office that felt like it had soul – red carpet, old books, psychedelic looking jungle statues. I felt safe and at home. A bit creeped out too, but I like that.
Government-run opt-in arranged marriage system – Have a government trial this in an attempt to counter declining birth rates + infinite single-dom. I think the Swiss Government would be a good candidate, given the direct democracy they employ. E.g. simply sign up and the government assembles a team of matchmakers. It’s of course opt-in, which means it’s on your own volition… I am not a dictator. But I think many people would be keen! Better than dating apps because the swiping is out of your control and governments have, I think, stronger incentive to match people than Bumble HQ.
A website that pools together a million different project ideas – People can just submit random ideas they have—business ideas, app ideas, event ideas, etc—and then they kind of just float around in the ether (literally, I imagine each idea as a bubble, floating around), and then people can “dibs” ideas and then they have like 6 months to take the first stab at building it, publish the result, or cancel. Can document lessons learned, etc.
An event that brings together excellent creatives/idea-generators who lack execution ability and excellent executors who lack vision/idea-generation ability – execution-con.
A business where I come into your home and help document your life – I’d do a lengthy interview of you, or you and your partner, or your parents, and basically use this to either write a long-form journalism piece about your life, a pre-mortem eulogy (see mine here), or a short illustrated book, film—whatever you’d like. You could give it as a birthday gift, a Christmas gift. A recollection of life 🙂 I did this with my parents, it was super sweet.
An app where you and your friends bet on each other’s life outcomes – (Hey – I’m actually building this one! It’s called Betsy. I plan to do 0 marketing for it.) Hm… something sad about building “an app”… I think this website sums it up well.
Rebuild the UN and make a reality TV show out of it – I think this could really bond humanity in a time in need of dire bonding. Maybe you could have 3-4 groups of people each take their own stab/approach at rebuilding, and see whose method works best. Omg would be so funny if you split the groups by profession, so you had a group of economists, physicists, philosophers, artists, all take a stab at rebuilding the most complex institution in the world.
Digital detox retreats that are less woo, more grounded – I think retreats focused on reading books, doing arts and crafts, cooking, talking with other humans – just being a normal person – could be massively popular. Most people I know would gladly spend a couple hundred to a thousand bucks for a week of no-phone time with accountability. But most retreats I come across have slightly too much of a mystical aura (which, I’m not against, but I think grounding requires less mysticism, more reality).
An app/extension that blocks all short-form video content – Either playing white noise in its place, blocking it from site entirely, or reciting some religious mantra on loop. Seriously, this shit is a crime against humanity. We are too weak for this shit. Or a shock collar? I think an effective ad campaign would be if all billboards and screens in the world, for one day, just showed a series of humans zombified watching short-form video content. It’s like when I’m on a bus and everyone is watching short-form videos, it shakes me back to life. I cannot succumb!!! Meta-awareness is useful.
A WhatsApp group chat with every WhatsApp user in the world, where we send a poll a day – Hey, I’m also actually doing this one, except only with 80 members. Working on a write-up for this… coming soon my friends.
Pre-therapy triage / sorting hat for psychology – I spent three years in talk therapy and then after 2-3 sessions of somatic therapy I realized I had been in the wrong modality the whole time. A comprehensive global database of therapists would be useful (better than Psychology Today), plus some online or in-person harry-potter-house-like-sorting-test that assesses whether your unique set of qualities would make you best suited for CBT, somatic therapy, IFS, ketamine, etc.