#3,023 – Craig’s Lists: Great Ideas From Other People

A roundup of great ideas from other people that I’ve come across lately:

• The anti-vacation.  Go somewhere shitty so your life seems better
• Take your friend to work day so they can meet all the characters in your stories
• Gamble on the activities of regular people.  Place over/unders on everyday activities like a person’s screen time
• Dunbar # social media site.  The anti-influencer site.  Cap number of followers at 150. 
• The Paris Airport setting up PS5’s for passengers to use while they wait for their flights
• A basketball league with a hoop that’s only 8 feet tall so that regular people can dunk when they play
• A technical foul only fantasy basketball league
• The University of Kyoto letting people dress up in Cosplay when they pick up their diploma at graduation
• Throwing a party when you get divorced
• Street lights on the ground for pedestrians who are staring down at their phones
• Cereal boxes that come with built in zip lock bags
• Toilet seats with built in scales so you can see how much you weigh before and after you go
• Hydrations sensors in public urinals so you can see if you need to drink more water
• Hang doors upside down so dogs have ground level windows
• Call iPhone chargers Apple Juice
• Taco trucks that roam around neighborhoods like ice cream trucks
• Instead of just walk in closets, have walk in fridges
• A version of Reddit that looks like Outlook so you can view Reddit at work
• Collecting sentences you wish you wrote
• Japan’s daydreaming competition
• Get rid of non-compete clauses.  Let people move around freely and innovate faster
• Pause a TV show and receive a “currently on” explainer
• Create unique NFL stadiums shaped like golf courses so long as they are still 100 yards long from end to end
• MLB’s spring prospect showcase
• Give an automatic playoff spot to the team that wins the NBA in season tournament

Are any of these the Greatest Idea Ever?

Read Full Post »

#2,491 – Craig’s Lists: What’s Your Tech Type?

Why do some people prefer Apple products while others prefer Android? What does choosing one over the other say about a person? And are there are any other ways to categorize people based on their product preferences and tech tastes?

In a way, what I’m imagining is a tech/science/nerd version of a Myers-Briggs personality test. Instead of finding out if someone is introverted or extroverted we’d find out if they like Apple or Google. If they’re tech savvy or a Luddite. Early adopter or adverse to change. Optimistic about the future or worried about living in a post apocalyptic society. That sort of thing.

So, what are some questions that we could come up with to get us to a point where we could match the Myers-Briggs groupings of introversion/extraversion, sensing/intuition, thinking/feeling, and judging/perceiving? Well, what about:

• Being an early adopter or not
• Being a beta tester or not
• Upgrading your phone every two years or keeping it until it breaks
• Investing in crypto or not
• Investing in tech stocks or not
• Believing in science or not (getting vaccinated or not)
• Being bullish or bearish on the stock market
• Being optimistic or pessimistic about the future
• Liking science fiction or not
• Dressing up at Comic Con or not
• Reading a book in its entirety even if you don’t like it versus moving on quickly
• Reading one book straight through before moving on vs reading more than one book at a time
• Reading physical books vs listening to audio books; owning books vs. having an e-reader
• Listening to podcasts or not
• Whether or not you collect something
• Whether or not you’re active on social media
• Whether or not you’re an influencer
• Whether or not you’re a thirst trap
• Whether or not you’ve taken a genealogical DNA test or ever would
• Whether or not you’ve participated in scientific studies or ever would
• Driving gas cars vs. electric
• Whether or not you would ever be a passenger in a Driverless car
• Eating meat vs. eating plant based alternatives
• Whether or not you would ever want to go to space
• Whether or not you would want to be a colonist on Mars
• Whether or not you would want to be cloned
• Whether or not you would want to clone a pet
• Believing in Climate Change or not
• Being okay with death or wanting to live forever
• Whether or not you’d want to participate in transhumanism and merge with machines
• Whether or not you’d want a brain implant
• Whether or not you think its moral or immoral to play God and enhance human beings with new abilities or bring back extinct species
• Whether you prefer being in nature or sitting behind a computer
• How tech savvy you are
• Whether or not you would have intercourse with a sex robot
• If you prefer AR or VR
• Whether you think AI is good or bad
• Whether or not you believe in Cancel Culture or not
• What economic theory you believe in
• Whether or not you think Universal Basic Income should be adopted or not
• Whether or not you would take psychedelic drugs
• Whether you’re a fan of Elon Musk or not
• Whether you’re a fan of Jeff Bezos or not
• What search engine you use
• What browser you use
• Whether you think the Earth is worth saving or if humanity should focus on becoming an interplanetary species
• Whether or not you think humanity should advertise our presence to aliens or not
• Whether or not you think there’s life on other planets or not
• Whether or not you can lucid dream
• How much screen time you get per day
• Whether or not new alerts on your phone distract you
• Whether or not you check your phone before you go to bed and first thing when you wake up
• Whether or not you have an Internet of Things enabled home
• Whether or not you have a Nest Thermostat
• Whether or not you have a Ring Doorbell
• Whether or not you’ve ever 3-D printed something yourself
• Whether or not you’ve flown a drone
• Whether or not you’ve ever used a VR headset
• Whether or not you use TikTok
• Whether or not you know how to program or have ever tried
• Whether or not you use a FitBit or track your steps
• Whether you have a traditional watch or smart watch or neither
• Whether or not you’re okay giving up your online privacy to gain certain benefits
• Whether or not you write down your passwords or try to remember them
• Whether or not you’ve ever been the victim of identify theft or fallen for a cybersecurity scam
• Whether or not you’re into astronomy
• If you cut your cord or still get cable TV
• If you’ve gotten cosmetic surgery or ever would
• If you’ve ever tried to start your own company or not
• If you come up with ideas or not
• If you are willing to go to therapy or not
• If you meditate or not
• If you believe in conspiracy theories or not
• If you care about how many social media followers you have or not
• If you’ve left a bad Yelp review or not
• If you belong to any online social groups or not
• If you shop online or not
• If you have a smart speaker at home or not
• What email service you use
• What maps service you use
• If you play video games or not
• If you trust geoengineering schemes or not
• If you want to control your own data or not
• If you think technology is inherently good or evil
• If you think NFTs have potential or not
• If you’ve been to Burning Man or not
• If you ask apps not to track you or not
• If you’ve ever attended a tech conference
• If you’re looking forward to the Metaverse or not
• If you mind talking to chatbots or not
• If you prefer talking on the phone to texting
• If you prefer working remotely or being in an office
• If you suffer from Zoom fatigue or not
• If you own your own webpage/blog
• If you prefer shopping on Black Friday or Cyber Monday
• If design influences your purchases or not
• How much storage space you get and use on your devices
• If you use external drives and extra memory cards or not
• If you wear Airpods or not
• If watching bad CGI bothers you or not
• If you own a camera or just use the camera on your phone
• If you’ve ever streamed pirated movies or not
• If you act differently online or not
• If you’ve ever trolled someone online or not
• If you use your real name or prefer anonymity when online

There are probably dozens of other things that we could also use to analyze someone and determine what their tech type is but I think that initial list captures the most obvious use cases. So what do you think? Should we bother to find out a person’s tech type or is knowing our Myers-Briggs type enough?!

Is finding out your tech type the Greatest Idea Ever?

Read Full Post »

#2,382 – Craig’s Lists: Great Ideas From Other People

A random round up of good ideas I’ve heard recently:

• Draft regular people to perform in the Olympics
• 3 day weekends
• Bring back the Scholastic Book Fair but put it inside bars
• Vaccinated only flights
• Accept all cookies automatically forever
• Say goodbye to your dog so they won’t have anxiety while you’re gone
• Blink at cats so they know you’re friendly
• Make it a law that companies have to allow people to completely cancel their service online without having to talk to a representative
• Tinder but for finding travel partners
• Ban car honking in radio ads
• Have a second kind of car horn to apologize with
• Add a HR derby to the Olympics
• Have Usain Bolt race Tyreek Hill in a Gold Medal vs. Super Bowl Ring match
• Use Augmented Reality come up with ad block for the real world
• Turn off the lights in Times Square instead of asking residents to limit their energy use during heat waves
• Break up the glasses making monopoly
• Put all of Elon Musk’s companies together under a holding company called X
• Transdermal hydration
• Men of impregnating age shouldn’t drink
• Create a matchmaking service for finding books to read
• Put other foods in purses like rotisserie chickens

So, what do you think? Are any of these the Greatest Idea Ever?!

Should Usain Bolt race Tyreek Hill?!

Read Full Post »

#2,381 – Craig’s Lists: What a Shame

I still can’t get over the latest UN Climate Report.  How dire it all seems.  From soaring temperatures and raging wildfires to drastic droughts and frightening floods the world is basically coming to an end.  Far sooner than anyone wants to admit.  This is obviously scary and disheartening and selfishly makes me angry that I’ll be deprived of the opportunity to travel the world and live the life I want. 

But beyond that, beyond the initial visceral reaction, it makes me sad deep down inside the fiber of my being that we’re going to be wasting everything that humanity has accomplished or is on the verge of accomplishing.  A world ravaged by Climate Change is a world where the miracles brought about by CRISPR genetic engineering just don’t matter anymore.  And what good is discovering habitable exo-planets if the planet we’re on is dead before we can even get off of it?  If things were hunky dory we would be celebrating the private space race between Branson and Bezos.  Instead we lament it because of how tone death it feels when there are so many other problems going on.  And that’s what I fear the most.  Not my own death.  Not the loss of my own possessions.  But rather the death of science.  The death of innovation.  The death of everything that humanity stands to lose when the wheels of progress come to a screeching halt.

And its a real shame because we’re on the verge of:

• Creating additional mRNA based vaccines
• Curing the common cold
• Understanding consciousness
• Launching a space tourism industry
• Entering the Metaverse
• Merging Augmented Reality into reality
• Being able to manipulate the weather
• Achieving fusion power
• Creating lab grown meat that tastes just like the real thing
• Enabling women to give birth through artificial wombs
• Bringing back people after they are clinically dead
• Creating human/animal chimeras
• Editing out genetic diseases, increasing crop yields thanks to CRISPR genetic engineering
• Mastering Synthetic Biology
• Figuring out 3-D printing
• Creating AI that passes the Turing Test
• Getting live in robotic maids
• Creating flying cars
• Building a blockchain based Internet
• Getting brain computer interfaces
• Reversing aging; extending the human life span
• Terraforming Mars
• Developing a workout pill
• Creating quantum computers
• Developing nanotechnology that heals us from within our bodies
• Having Bitcoin go mainstream
• Administering Universal Basic Income
• Curing allergies
• Blocking pain
• Controlling the weather

We are so close to achieving all that and more.  So close to getting driverless cars.  So close to entering into virtual worlds that far exceed anything we can imagine.  So close to playing God and creating all new life forms or bringing back extinct ones.  At this point there’s really nothing we can’t accomplish.  No where we can’t reach.  To think that it wasn’t too long ago that we were living in caves and discovering fire for the first time and now we’re launching billionaires into space.  And yet its about to be all for naught.  Instead of adding new footnotes to the history books we’re about to leave behind actual footprints to history.  Becoming part of the archeological record instead of setting new records.

My only hope is that some of it survives.  That it wasn’t all for nothing.

Climate Change is going to negate all of our scientific achievements.

Read Full Post »

#2,380 – Craig’s Lists: Fields of Dreams

The first ever Field of Dreams game was so successful that Major League Baseball will be returning next year for a game between the Cubs and Cardinals.

Alternating the host team for a game set in Iowa between the Cubs and White Sox makes a lot of sense. As does making the game an annual tradition. But you know what else also makes a lot of sense? Doing the same kind of barnstorming pop up game in other locales as well. By taking the show on the road Major League Baseball can do the one thing that they’ve been struggling to do for years: make the game exciting, relevant and part of the national discourse once again.

And best of all there’s really no shortage of places that they can visit. Such as:

• Cooperstown where the Hall of Fame is
• Kansas City where the Negro League Hall of Fame is
• Williamsport where the Little League World Series is (already going there)
• A Mariners game in Alaska at midnight when its still light out
• A Padres game in Hawaii
• A Nationals game back in Montreal
• A Red Sox game in Cape Cod
• A Yankees or Mets game on Coney Island
• Return to places they’ve already been like London and Tokyo as well as Puerto Rico and Mexico City
• A game in cities rumored to be candidate for expansion teams such as Charlotte, Austin, Nashville, Portland, Las Vegas, etc.
• With a National Park in the background
• With Mount Rushmore in the background
• On military bases
• On a beach
• In small towns that recently lost their minor league teams

But my favorite idea of all is to do other movie themed events. Such as a Major League themed game in Cleveland or a Sandlot game. Because honestly the tie in to the film with the movie set right there and Kevin Costner in attendance is what made the Field of Dreams game so special more so than just the location in and of itself. Lock it up. Championship.

If you build it they will come.

Read Full Post »

#2,349 – Craig’s Lists: The Keys to Happiness

Don’t worry, be happy.  Nowadays, that’s easier said than done.  The Delta Variant is threatening to undo all the progress we made on defeating COVID-19 while a typhoon is bearing down on Japan just as the Olympics are set to get underway.  Throw in wildfires, floods, record-setting heat waves and the existential dread associated with Climate Change and you’ve got a real double whammy of negativity.  Suffice it to say, in today’s day and age, it’s not easy to find happiness.  But there are things one can do to achieve happiness.  Real, tangible, legitimate things.  At least in theory.  If such a thing is even still possible with everything else going on. 

These things, these so-called keys to happiness, are intertwined within the pages of Eric Weiner’s fascinating book The Geography of Bliss.  Some of them, like having sex, will seem obvious.  Others not so much.  Some will apply to you.  Others won’t.  But just knowing that they exist is good enough for me.  At least for now.  I’ll worry about trying them out later.  If there is a later.

With that in mind here’s a look at some scientifically proven ways to find happiness in a not so happy world:  

• Stay busy
• Be tolerant
• Have sex
• Be religious or just have a belief system of any kind
• Be extroverted
• Get a college degree
• Live in a city
• Feel like you have control over your life
• Get a dog
• Hug other people
• Be around other people
• Live in the moment
• Have exposure to dirt
• Appreciate nature (Biophilia)
• Do good (be altruistic)
• Be less materialistic
• Live in a colder climate
• Express your creativity
• Find a culture to take part in that best suits you
• Have low expectations
• Eat chocolate
• Avoid the Paradox of Choice (of being in situations where you have too many choices and can’t decide what to do)
• And most importantly of all….don’t actively think about your happiness!

Some of these like what climate you live in or how extroverted you are you won’t necessarily have control over. But others (eating chocolate, spending time in nature) you absolutely can control. Or at least try to work on such as expressing your creativity or lowering your expectations.

So, what do you think?! Are you ready to take your happiness to the next level?!

There are scientifically proven ways to find happiness.

Read Full Post »

#2,214 – Craig’s Lists: Vaccination Rewards

Earlier today, Krispy Kreme announced that they would be giving out a free doughnut daily to people with a COVID-19 vaccination card between now and the end of the year. Now, I know what you’re thinking. You didn’t just put your life on hold for a year and survive COVID just to get diabetes and die from a doughnut overdose in the months that follow the pandemic. And I get that. But I do think that this idea has merit. At least, in terms of coming up with ways to properly motivate and reward people for getting vaccinated. Something they should be doing anyway but may be scared or hesitant to do without an extra push.

So what are some other things we could be doing to properly motivate people to get vaccinated?! How about:

• Tax breaks, extension on filing
• Discounts from various big name retailers
• Airline frequent flyer points bonus
• Tickets to sporting events, seat upgrades, special access to promotional giveaways
• Entry into raffle drawings for various donated prizes
• Additional entry into the SpaceX trip around the Moon contest
• Lower insurance rates similar to the safe driving discount that already exists
• Receive some kind of commemorative documentation from the government thanking you for your service
• Extra stimulus payment specifically tied to getting vaccinated
• Access to exclusive content (music, games, shows, movies) via digital download codes
• Free stuff (podcasts, apps, eBooks, magazine subscriptions, etc.)
• Priority access to the next vaccine that’s needed
• Priority access on organ donor lists in case you need some other form of medical care in the future
• Some kind of get out of jail free card for a future minor infraction you may commit like a speeding ticket
• Remove a mark that you may already have on your permanent record
• Free access to premium services on dating apps for a limited time period
• Bonus time off from work
• Invitations to exclusively beta test new products
• Vouchers for future entry to theme parks
• Personalized thank you message recorded on Cameo by your favorite celebrity
• A five minute phone call with your idol/crush/favorite person
• Get discovered on Social Media; have some of your content get the chance to go viral; get access to publish on accounts with millions of followers
• Receive an exclusive Instagram or Snapchat filter
• Gain the ability to edit Tweets
• Get invited to an exclusive invite only app like Clubhouse
• Get a voucher to give to someone else you know so that they too can be eligible for a vaccine shot
• Priority reservations at restaurants when everything re-opens
• Exclusive access to pre-order books, products, event tickets before the general public has access to them

The inverse could also work. Instead of rewards, how about punishments? Such as that restaurant surcharge that went viral wherein patrons would get hit with a $75 charge if they need to be told to wear a mask and then proceed to argue about it. Could fines or other forms of society ostracization motivate people to wear masks and get vaccinated? To finally do what they were supposed to be doing all along?!

Personally, I think we should be doing both. Rewards and punishments. Enticements and deterrents. Anything and everything in our power to motivate or entice people into doing what needs to be done. Into finally getting this virus under control.

Is rewarding people for getting vaccinated the Greatest Idea Ever?

Read Full Post »

#2,210 – Craig’s Lists: Cancel Culture

Cancel Culture is all the rage now even though it’s not really cancel culture if you’re the one canceling yourself (Dr. Seuss) or if a private company acting in a free market is the one cancelling you for dangerous speech (Donald Trump on Twitter). In fact, in most cases the cancellation is deserved; what we use to call consequences for your actions.

So to be frank, I really don’t have a problem with Cancel Culture, unlike those hypocrites on Fox News who spend all their time complaining about it after being the ones to literally cancel Colin Kaepernick for kneeling during football games. All in all, the only thing I take exception with is the fact that we’re not canceling the right things. If you ask me here is a lit of all the things that we SHOULD cancel:

• The shift in baseball
• Squeaky floors in basketball
• Overtime rules in football
• Student Loan Debt
• Fox News
• Flat Earthers
• Climate Change Deniers
• Columbus Day
• Daylight Savings Time
• Snakes
• Traffic; the fact that everyone works the same 9-5 shift; balance that shit out
• Religion
• Having “In God We Trust” on dollar bills; saying God Bless the United States of America after speeches; what happened to separation of church and state?
• Working jobs we hate; institute Universal Basic Income instead
• Annoying sounds like car alarms
• Horror and Sci-Fi always being tied together at film festivals; these are two different genres!
• Naked people in gym bathrooms; have some common courtesy and shower with a bathing suit on like the rest of us!
• Cable company monopolies
• Slow Internet speeds
• Pop up ads
• Election Day; have an election week instead; and don’t report results live the day of; wait a few days or weeks until everything has been double and triple checked and then unveil the results in a big prime time spectacle
• Ride share scooters; they just litter the landscape creating massive eyesores
• Starlink; it’s ruining astronomy!
• Elon Musk’s market moving tweets; how is that legal?
• Social Media
• Senators owning stock
• Politicians having social media accounts
• Fossil Fuels
• 20 minutes of coming attractions before movies
• Condiments
• Mashed Potatoes
• Casseroles
• Constantly having to change computer passwords
• Olympic venues constantly changing costing taxpayers millions; just have one set location
• Marijuana convictions
• Sport game blackouts; let people in that market watch their favorite team
• Airline bag/cancellation fees
• Rent increases
• Having to figure out on your own how much you owe in taxes; just tell us how much we owe!
• Christmas music in public places like malls
• Leaving up holiday decorations months after the fact
• Front lawns; wastes a ton of water
• Golf courses; wastes a ton of land
• Reliance on eating meat
• Private jets
• Tax breaks for corporations like Amazon
• Canceling TV shows too early (like Firefly)
• Trophy hunting endangered animals
• All hunting really
• Culling the Amazon Rainforest; ever damaging a tree for any reason
• Hidden high speed cameras and speed traps; ticket quotas
• Companies that offer better deals to new customers than long-time, loyal existing customers
• Snakes
• Loud talking in bookstores; we should treat bookstores the way we treat libraries!
• The fact that Puerto Rico can’t vote
• The fact that D.C. isn’t a state
• Dogs barking incessantly
• Stock market based on human emotions and not just pure facts

As you can see there is a lot of stuff that we need to cancel! And I think that everyone, no matter whether you normally lean left or right, can agree that everything on this list needs to go!

Cancel Culture is taking over.

Read Full Post »