An open list of problems and product ideas
These are ideas for products that I’m unable to build or I’m unsure of the validity of. There’s some possibility that we’ll pluck one of these out in the future and work on it. For the time being, though, I’ll use this as a place to chuck what pops into my head. Feel free to work on one of these ideas if it appeals to you.
- It’s hard to make sense of the news. On one end there’s click-bait, infotainment, and sometimes misinformation. On the other there’s quality journalism that’s time consuming to process. I’d pay for a service that provided me with 2 — 3 sentence summaries of key news stories, in as unbiased a manner as possible. Although this could lead me to more detailed stories, I see it as different than a collection of headlines. Headlines are built to create excitement and engagement. This would be purely a briefing for the layperson (e.g., me).
- Misinformation is rampant. The uninformed now have equal means for sharing stories as professionals and institutions. Given their weakness in research and fact-checking they help give credence to ridiculous—and sometimes destructive—notions. Their voices are effectively hijacked by social engineers who use them to weaponize information. Can we create tools/systems (in addition to better funding public education) to help inform those who’re most susceptible to spreading misinformation?
- Business writing is loaded with bullshit. We’ve all caught ourselves using jargon-heavy terminology and clichés. I’d like to have a tool that’d check my writing and highlight such terms before I hit Send.
P.S. I’ll continue adding to this list.