Alex has struggled to get anything done this month due to domestic disruption – including moving to Georgia.
Have reduced some old ideas about community further. This statement encapsulates these ideas:
We lived in groups to survive the tyranny of nature.
We were less free and less lonely. Now we are more free and more lonely.
We are torn. This is expressed everywhere.
The fix is to have both freedom and tyranny.
I bet the following:
- The fix is to mass produce tyranny. It must be bought en masse, be vanishingly cheap and drive cohesion sufficient to engage our reward circuitry (our biochemical relief from lonliness).
- The fix will result, most conspicuously, from the convergance and mutation of multiplayer gaming and online social networking.
- The fix will heavily influence offline behaviours. In effect, we will live in a game (though it may not feel like one), often unconsciously conforming to its rules and conventions.
- The fix will slightly reduce tension in society (particularly conservative versus liberal impulse) and slightly increase happiness.
Still struggle to explain what the application does. Some possibilities:
- a bulletin board design that reduces topic duplication
- a search engine that makes very specific search (e.g. “anyone feel the need for beer on Tuesday?”) more worthwhile
- an online social network that develops trust more strongly than current alternatives
Decided to quit pursuing patent. Under current US law, I could still apply arguing that I was ‘first to invent’. Not overly fussed.
Hi Michelle,
For the time being, I have decided not to pursue this patent. I understand and will shoulder the risks.
I first approached you with little more than a concept. I have since discovered that the real value is in its execution.
I have spotted 7 businesses launch using the same concept but none, as far as I am aware, have become popular.
Best regards,
[Below this is a review of 2008, moved from standalone post to December 2008 post in December 2009.]
Looking back over 2008, I have had a good go at making Look2Look work. I spent almost a year (August 2007 to June 2008) tweaking Look2Look in the belief that I was on the verge of making it compelling enough to succeed. I came to the conclusion that there was no breakthrough to be had. Of the 7 direct competitors identified, none seem to have succeeded either. The business idea seems flawed. The urgency ‘to get there first’ has dissipated. My biggest strategic error was to shun Facebook. Look2Look’s best chance was as a Facebook application. Currently, my focus is on Mootka. Mootka is an attempt to apply the search-on-search technique more generically. My hope is that it will do everything Look2Look does and much more besides. I am still working it out.