Thursday, January 31, 2019

MY BRILLIANT IDEA

Now that I have gathered all the evidence I need for my idea that will potentially solve the problem that I have been having:
I am going to solve Gainesville issue of dead animals being off the side of the road or in public parks by selling people an application that will allow them to access a map and mark the area and contact an animal service unit to collect the carcass efficiently and effectively.
The initial idea might be sound enough to just float (if it turns out of course), but if I wanted to take this product to the next step and possibly create my own animal service specifically for my app. It can be like the Uber of dead animals! I'M GONNA B RICH

Monday, January 28, 2019

TESTING OUT THIS NEW HYPOTHESIS I GOT ON, YOU LIKE?

I am going to pursue my hypothesis on the local community and roadkill, specifically "the issue of dead animals in our community is one that has some serious ramifications on our very way of life".

The Who: why the people of Gainesville, of course!
The What: the question of what to do with these dead animals.
The Why: the presence of these critters is one that has many implications and problems with it.

Testing: The biggest concern for the who is essentially some, how you say, haters on my idea who feel that they are above the concerns of the rest of us. Living in gated off communities, taking helicopters everyone, etc. If I could reach them somehow and convert them (perhaps with a copy of Quotations by Mao Tse-Tung) then this project would be more successful. As for the what, well it is a very open-ended question. How many animals are killed daily here? Where do they usually go? Why? Who takes care of their corpses? What if they're domesticated pets and not wild? I must investigate further but for now my agency will be on all animal corpses to be treated equally. The why, too, is rather open ended. Some people simply do not care about this issue, and even if I were to go through the diseases carried and developed by corpses as well as the philosophical or moral implications of leaving animals on the road I feel they'd still go on about their day.

Interviews: I've interviewed 5 random people from the streets of Gainesville and the campus grounds of UF to varying degrees of success in gathering constructive information. First person I interviewed was a student around Library West, and to sum it up I asked them about my concerns of reaching a bigger audience and referencing how some people simply are so removed from the community that an issue like this they might not even notice and they agreed and went so far as to recommend radical tactics such as finding numbers of animals killed in one day by vehicles and posting those statistics online or around the neighborhood. I like this idea, but it seems rather aggressive. Then there was a certain individual, also on campus, who I could describe as incredibly passive towards the subject. They made the who of the question seem harder to reach, as they were a member of the "average" population here and yet completely showed no interest in the questions I raised on the issue. The third person was also a campus student but I knew them from previous acquaintance. They were similar to the first interview in that they were enthusiastic about the idea and answering my questions, They suggested I contact local garbage companies to see if there is a protocol on dead animals or not. When I left campus to talk to people around the downtown area I got much more mixed reactions. Someone said that the idea would never work at all; there would need to be a new individual service that would have to park in areas heavily populated by cars. It would need a big down payment, essentially. That was pretty scary information, and the next person did help quell my initial anxiety but advised I do look more into the why of the question. Why is this even important, they asked. I must dig deeper to answer their questions.

Thursday, January 24, 2019

IDENTIFYING OPPORTUNITIES

1) Just heard in the news that Jeff Bezos is being divorced with no prenup and as such his wife is now the fifth richest person in the world. I imagine this will potentially impact Amazon's stock value and even power on the marketplace. I heard about this on the Internet (naturally), and I think this creates an opportunity because Jeff Bezos personally does not have as much buying and investing power as he previously did, even though he still has an extremely high amount. The average person that I could latch on to here is the clueless dad Amazon shopper who will go anywhere that's the cheapest to use. This can be hard to exploit however, as it's a very competitive field in terms of developing online markets. I think a guy like me noticed this because I'm very influenced by online meme-style advertising, especially in social media.

2) I read in NPR that a new President in Venezuela has been elected without U.S. support. Given our history of involvement in South America due to corporate interests, I see potential here to make a move on the supermarket/crop industries. This is a wider spread customer base than the previous example, as everyone buys groceries in one way or another. Most of which are imported goods from South America or other parts of the world. This too should be hard to exploit, however. Big names are in this business, such as Coca-Cola and Nestle. I feel like I'm someone who would notice these things because of my previous knowledge of CIA involvement in South American governments and a very basic understanding of exploitation in globalist, market economies.

3) Word on the online street is that there are going to be more regulatory efforts by the U.S. to establish bitcoin as a legitimate form of funds, and I feel this has great potential to explode in hopefully a positive way. Bitcoin is a bit of a niche economy in its own right, but there is belief that it could potentially be a profitable form of stock-exchange. The average customer who cares about bitcoin is likely either an alt-right conspirator or a chronic vape enthusiast, which is honestly good and bad news. Good in a general sense because people like me tend to have our eye on these kinds of markets, generally because we spend too much time on 4chan. Bad because that means I'm not the only one noticing this.

4) New regulations regarding online advertising and digital information has resulted in major companies such as Buzz Feed and Vice having to lay off hundreds of employees at a time to adjust to the new marketplace. This means that now is a good time to invest in either these major players or a smaller, independent media outlet, as I honestly do not see these companies going anywhere anytime soon. While most people might not want to admit it, they use websites such as these and other ones such as Pitchfork to get their daily dose of instant gratification. Most people being of course millennials and Internet users.  Being an investor isn't an easy job, not that I would know per se, but I do know that getting a good hand in this industry can go a long way in terms of favors and control. Why would someone like me notice this? I consider myself a bit of a neutral party in the battlefield of online politics and news sources. I trust none of them, and that leaves me in perfect position to potentially exploit them.

Monday, January 21, 2019

LOCAL OPPORTUNITIES?

I don't consider myself an avid news reader, given my paranoia and general distrust for media, but I decided to look through my grandma's favorite newspaper and find some interesting stories that could be potential problems for me to solve.

1)  David Godwin: Prescribed fire cultivates healthy landscapes

https://infoweb-newsbank-com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu/apps/news/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info%3Asid/infoweb.newsbank.com&svc_dat=WORLDNEWS&req_dat=0D0CB57BE7FF6D8A&rft_val_format=info%3Aofi/fmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft_dat=document_id%3Anews%252F17112F8D46BC2EA0

What's being said here is basically an opinion piece that controlled fires in the state of Florida will cultivate healthy ecosystems the same way rain flourishes life in the rain forests. I believe the problem being presented here is that regulated fire as a system of aiding the ecosystem is either in danger or suffering from a social stigma due to ignorance of the public. This is a problem that affects all of us living here in Florida, and should something radically change it could spell disaster for our home. 

2)  Incumbent judges not often challenged in elections

https://infoweb-newsbank-com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu/apps/news/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info%3Asid/infoweb.newsbank.com&svc_dat=WORLDNEWS&req_dat=0D0CB57BE7FF6D8A&rft_val_format=info%3Aofi/fmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft_dat=document_id%3Anews%252F1711819014FDFA48

This is an interesting piece on local elections for the judicial system, looking at the trend of long-time, incumbent judges and how usually they manage to run unopposed or with little resistance. This is because most other local attorneys risk bad publicity and broken relationships in the community, and so generally they wait for the state-mandated retirement age for these judges. Basically the problem could arise from this is that the older judges, while still popular in their communities, they often do not rank highly in the categories of "listening to newer legal problems" and "treating all with equal courtesy". This problem could affect the younger generations who are facing problems that are brand new to this world, problems that likely older generations will not be patient to listen to.

3) Editorial: Stop the use of shady political tactics

https://infoweb-newsbank-com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu/apps/news/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info%3Asid/infoweb.newsbank.com&svc_dat=WORLDNEWS&req_dat=0D0CB57BE7FF6D8A&rft_val_format=info%3Aofi/fmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft_dat=document_id%3Anews%252F1711819051F84010

Given the midterms and the 2016 Presidential election I would think most Americans are familiar with the kind of brutal conflicts that can arise from these political games. The article goes into some extremely amoral political tactics that went on during the midterm elections in Florida, including false claims, ads paid for and not run, and using odd forms of accounting and money moving to hide the original donors for certain campaigns. This problem in today's political climate has only worsened everyone's faith in the political system, and as such many people (including myself) do not partake in voting or any form of active involvement in the government. Some people view this as a threat to our stability as a country, which, to some, is bad. 

4) Megan Hendricks: It's time to get serious about Florida's teacher shortage
https://infoweb-newsbank-com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu/apps/news/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info%3Asid/infoweb.newsbank.com&svc_dat=WORLDNEWS&req_dat=0D0CB57BE7FF6D8A&rft_val_format=info%3Aofi/fmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft_dat=document_id%3Anews%252F1710DC5F633F8F40

In the article it is stated that state of Florida is struggling to keep its teacher count afloat, due to several reasons including enforced standardized testing, low teacher pay, and the rising responsibilities of the job. The problem here is that teachers are the foundation of all other professions and forms of education; without enough properly-trained teachers to educate each generation of children, there will be suffering in all fields overall. This problem affects mostly the children of Florida who will be faced with struggling schools and poor education as well as teachers who have to carry more weight to deliver education to these children. 

5) Ella Bennett and Sami Gattshall: Keep our classmates from getting addicted to nicotine
https://infoweb-newsbank-com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu/apps/news/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info%3Asid/infoweb.newsbank.com&svc_dat=WORLDNEWS&req_dat=0D0CB57BE7FF6D8A&rft_val_format=info%3Aofi/fmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft_dat=document_id%3Anews%252F1710DC5F68581060

According to this article (written by students currently in high school), 95% of all smokers started before the age of 21, and they are seeing this as more and more students pick up on new vaping products that could lead to nicotine addiction at a young age. Apparently some people think this is a problem. Anyway, many people find that the marketing techniques and flavors of these nicotine products are targeting younger audiences and victimizing them to the downfalls of using nicotine. Young high school students who use these products are really being targeted for this problem, specifically. 

Thursday, January 17, 2019

SUDDEN FEELING OF AN IDEA

I was just lounging around after a hard day of lifting weights when it occurred to me that I felt there was something missing here in Gainesville. As though there were a hole that a certain someone could fill up, in other words an opportunity.

Returning to the first idea I created in my listed problem post, there is a large problem in the suburban communities of dead animal carcasses. This is a problem that affects everyone who lives in the area, as the more compassionate elderly and children find it hard to live with themselves and their willful ignorance of these animals and the concerned adults fear the potential diseases that could spread. To be honest this is kind of a problem that has always existed in this area and most areas I've been in, and right now I don't know what anyone is doing to help out with these problems except for the construction workers who come on to the roads where the animals lay. I pass by the same dead cat daily on my bus ride home from UF, just to give an idea of the problem. I'm fairly confident (about 75%) there is potential for an idea here, but I'll need to ask some prototypical customers to see the true potential for this idea.

Customer 1 says that she thinks the idea for an app of some sorts to locate animal carcasses on a communal-based software is a good idea, as she has noticed that there were often dead animals by the road since she attained sentience. Likely because people tend to hit animals with their cars. She says that the problem should be fix mainly because they are smelly and a detriment to our community health. Also some explode due to build up of gas. I learned from talking to her that I am not the only one who feels these carcasses are detrimental to the community and that a solution would have to be based on communication between all people who notice these things.

Customer 2 said that the idea is interesting but also pointed out that there are similar existing groups on Facebook who dedicate themselves to finding lost pets, sometimes found dead on the road. That said, he still thinks that this idea could take the foundation of this community-based system and expand it beyond Facebook groups and potentially make some ad revenue. I was surprised to hear that there are such groups already existing, and the thought of locating pets didn't occur to me either. If I were to add an addition to this project related entirely to whether or not the animal was wild or not I'm sure there'd be more interest.

Customer 3 thinks that the idea needs more work due to it's relatively skeletal structure in terms of a functioning app. As an idea, yes, he's encountered the problem more than enough in his nineteen years of life, but overall the problem needs a more grounded solution than simply developing a community-based app. Currently, his solution is designed on direct communal action such as signs for where animals should be wary or even building fences for where deer or dogs may cross. His reaction most certainly was something that I had considered; if this app actually becoming the new standard for how we deal with roadkill I'd be very surprised. That said, he did mention something I did not find myself expecting and that was how does this service directly solve the problem? You need to be more direct than simply calling up dead animals services; you need to go out and take direct action by informing the community of the problem and maybe even like containers for the carcasses. Might not work out but I like the idea so far.

Wow, that was actually pretty interesting. Not everyone liked the idea but everyone did have something to add to it that is pretty goddamn beneficial if I do say so myself. In terms of my first guess being true, it turns off I was farther than I had imagined. I had hoped to knock this one out of the pack in one fell swoop, but it looks like I need more ideas on how to improve this. With regards to how much an entrepreneur should bend to the audience, well that is extremely contextual. I know from my experience in the games industry that more often than not businesses are criticized by fans for either never changing or changing too much. Both of which are directly at the fault of people making inaccurate measurements on how much their fans actually want the changes they're suggesting. So overall, right now I should listen to every customer. At a point, though, I must have a grasp on what I'm doing here.

Wednesday, January 16, 2019

MY ENTREPRENEURSHIP HISTORY



Now, as your local Gainesville tour guide and entrepreneur, I feel as though I must divulge some history of mine with business interactions and entrepreneurship in general. I myself didn't know next to anything about how to run a business or the importance of it aside from what I did in the Boy Scouts. Sure we worked alongside charities and other organizations to provide help to the community, but I never personally got to see the inner workings of the people who start these kinds of businesses. It wasn't until I got roped into the Innovation Academy and took a study abroad trip to Ireland (pictured above) that I got to interact with people who work with logistical numbers, in think tanks/incubators for ideas, and other parts where business ideas can come from. All of this was rather interesting to me, and was part of my reason to continue studying this new field. I felt as though even if I ended up becoming a high school teacher in my hometown having a decent enough background in business would allow me to better understand the workings of ideas that develop in young people all over the world.

Tuesday, January 15, 2019

20 PROBLEMS

Reader, I was sitting around minding my own business when it occurred to me that there are several sorts of problems that exist in our world that could be possibly exploited by exceptional individuals such as myself for profit purposes! Why, I got so excited by the notion that I decided to create this post of about twenty of these problems that I feel could use some future fixin'!

1) Noticed a large amount of dead animals by the side of the road, likely never picked up because the services to do so are never notified. A specific app that would let people notify certain people where dead animals are located would be a good idea because it seems it would be a simple help.

2) A large amount of potential land for development is lost to irresponsible housing and environmental disasters/conditions. The latter is really something most people have no control over (except for the 1% who own the oil and energy companies), but the former I find most egregious. If I may postulate my idea, I propose that we simply develop an entirely new way of living: through geodesic dome structures! Houses are an ineffective model of living in terms of energy output per person; a communal based system is much more effective.

3) This leads into my next problem; it takes too much time and effort to redevelop land lost by floods or other disasters. The natural movements of the world are to blame for these inconveniences, and as such we must further research methods of damming and controlling water flow throughout North America so as to maximize potential redevelopment of land.

4) I did some digging and found that nearly all efforts that have gone towards recycling programs have resulted in minimal environmental benefits. Given that most people still do not understand how to properly recycle and the near millions of dollars that we have spent on these programs over the years, I propose to lobby for anti-recycling measures in order to save our taxpayers dollars and fund more effective environmental programs (later, of course).

5) I and many others I know hate how when you get a new computer you can't transfer your music files from your iPhone to your iTunes account. There does exist software to allow this process, but it seems rather sketchy and possibly malware-infested. Someone should make a more mainstream/user-friendly application to allow this process. Or just protest outside Apple.

6) Another thing that isn't user-friendly at all: Dungeons and Dragons. I get that being complicated is a large part of the appeal, and there are billions of blogs on how to set up your own dungeon adventures, but what people need and want are solid resources. A book series, even in graphic novel format, would be extremely helpful and I think would sell well enough.

7) I'm really stuck on the idea of land, and there do exist cases of large areas of unused houses or condos that go to waste without any inhabits in them. For this I propose a co-development project with the U.S. Navy to produce satellite-based lasers on which we can glass land that otherwise would've gone wasted to unused housing.

8) Now you know what people really keep losing all the time? Their JUULS! It's black and it's small so of course you lose it! If I could get into contact with that company to develop a Juul locator app that works within a small radius (because people don't often lose them that far away), I'm sure people wouldn't have to buy so many Juul devices. Unless that's exactly what the Juul company doesn't want to happen, of course. 

9) You know, a lot of YouTubers I know rely heavily on advertising to make money. I imagine a lot of users who use AdBlock would like to support these content creators and still maintain their freedom from ads, so if I made a software program that would simply notify a user of their AdBlock status being on or off I'm sure I could get many YouTubers to sponsor me. 

10) Often in assignments we need to tinker with the time zones due to the online nature of modern education. It was only doing this that I realized public school has failed me in this regard, because I had to spend at least half an hour asking friends and navigating Google to figure out where I belonged. If the computer simply had a calendar-like system for marking time zones and where we each belong, this'd be a simple solution and maybe even life changing. 

11) Most common health problem that I see in every person I meet: dehydration. Every single person is consistently dehydrated because we aren't aware of the amount of water we should be taking in at all times. A simple app or device like a FitBit could potentially prevent several life-altering conditions or diseases for thousands of people if they maintained hydration. 

12) Every young kid, deep down, kinda wants to be a rock star. But often, at least when I was young and wanted to be a rock star, there is no way to connect with other potential like-minded musicians outside of high school or organizations. A simple ad-type application where people can post ads with information such as music tastes and equipment and room available would be amazing. 

13) Back to my Dungeons and Dragons idea: somewhat similar idea but for professional wrestling. How many potential fans are these wrestling companies losing because literally no kid knows the lore or history of professional wrestling?!?! It's insane! There needs to be an effective archive (for sale of course) that could essentially work as the "beginner's guide" to modern, televised wrestling. 

14) Okay same idea as above but for Marvel and DC. Seriously, these guys are losing so much potential profit because they literally have no idea how to introduce a little bit of subtlety to their narratives! If they just would release beginner guide's to these comic series as soon as their movies come out then I can guarantee at least a small amount of increase in readership. They are putting no effort in at this point. 

15) Going back to Juul and Juul pods. Everyone knows that one pod equals one pack of cigarettes. But does anyone know the ratio to nicotine per big cloud of vape? If I made an app that kept track of that per strength of blow it would make so much money.

16) A simpler invention for the Juul: a mini-garbage container designed to stack empty Juul pods. It'll be set up like a plastic garbage toy that is meant to fit Juul pods exactly. This'll get rid of the pollution problem they pose because people are too lazy to look for garbage cans.

17) Ashtrays are becoming a less and less common commodity in households due to the generation of parents who are more aware of the dangers of cigarettes. That said, we are approaching a generation of children who do not care for the dangers of smoking as well as more heavily smoke in general and as such it is important that we redesign ashtrays to be hip for these new generations. Ashtrays that double as plant vases or look like coffee mugs, etc.

18) I notice that among vinyl enthusiasts they consider themselves archivists of a sort. When they see vinyl being improperly stacked or never dusted, it drives them into a murderous rage in a way. That's why we must create a First Vinyl Collection type of kit for young music lovers. It'll come with all the professional editions to a vinyl collector such as dusting material, cloths, and instructions on how to stack and store vinyl.

19) I've already seen people make a living off of selling series of books dedicated to translating Shakespeare for young people taking tests, and the problem with this is we forget about the other, harder to decipher classic authors such as Ben Johnson or even James Joyce. Solution? Develop series for all the neglected classics who are in school curriculum.

20) Remember those problems that applied to vinyl enthusiasts? Same applies to music lovers. Too many local bands are simply using the same amps and strings they've had since they first got their equipment and we are seeing a slow decline of interest in local music scenes in favor of the cities that breed talent. It is vital that we combat this decline and turn a profit through developing either a First Musician Kit for each instrument or creating a music tech social media app that is more effective than reddit in tying people together.

Wow, I really did come up with 20 things! You know before I took on this challenge I was really worried about having to figure out so many things that bug me cause really I consider myself relatively calm with my surrounding environment. Excluding questions of political government and philosophical rights, of course. That said, I found that once I found about 5 or so problems that truly disgusted me the rest of them seemed to come naturally to me. 

Wednesday, January 9, 2019

WELCOME!

Welcome to my blaaa-oog! Welcome to my blaaa-oog! Welcome reader welcome reader welcome reader-

Alright introductions are due now. My name is Victor Ellifritt and I am an entrepreneur looking for new things to study and find solutions to in my local area. Right now my leading project for entrepreneurship is creating some sort of "underground" tour guide of the coolest places in Gainesville if your idea for fun is chain-smoking and stage diving. I am open to all sorts of suggestions and possibilities though, as you never know where the next big thing is.

A little bit about me: I study English and other literature at the University of Florida, I have no skills outside of a minor set of social skills and the ability to read big books, and my previous independent work experience sums up to writing reviews for music blogs.

But enough about that; I'd love to hear more about all of you readers as the days pass by!