
Future Searching - alexandros
http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/future_searching/
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tommynazareth
No matter how easily resources are made available, capitalism won't break down
When resources are freed, there is a new playing field for entrepreneurs to
add value, for instance the availability of information and the profitability
of search.

There will always be more significant barriers to embracing capitalism. Many
people are comfortable with the existence of a welfare state and will never be
capitalists no matter how easy it is to acquire resources and minimize risk.
There is unprecedented opportunity today succeed in the game of capitalism,
either as an entrepreneur or a skilled worker, but there is an obvious lack of
initiative among large segments of the world's population. I doubt this
situation will change no matter how low the barriers to entry are.

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fragmede
> Example: What is the most profitable ___LEGAL_ __cash crop that an
> inexperienced farmer could plant on five flat acres in Northern California?

There's a reason he has to emphasize legal, and that's because the obvious
cash crop isn't. The market of capitalism has decided, and has found the best
use of the land possible.

> Suppose you want to find a turnkey web site management company...

A listing site of vetted companies providing X service, unbribe-able by ad-
dollars, would have to be subscription-only to be sustainable. Unfortunately
charging for online content doesn't have the best history. Facebook and
LinkedIn are positioning themselves to find said company 'close' to you that
people can recommend.

> Think of it as Match.com for startups.

This one has gone around a couple of times here before, and ranges from an
actual web app, to that google spreadsheet that comes up every once in a
while. So, the need's definitely there. Arguably, meetup.com meets that need
rather successfully.

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itsadok
> There's a reason he has to emphasize legal, and that's because the obvious
> cash crop isn't. The market of capitalism has decided, and has found the
> best use of the land possible.

What makes the "obvious cash crop" so profitable is the fact that it's
illegal, and therefore requires a high premium to cover the risk involved.
There's nothing inherently super-profitable about growing pot.

~~~
fragmede
You're right, and it's actually kind of interesting that Prop 19 has
opposition in Northern California, because it's widely accepted that its
passage will severely bring down prices, and thus profitability.

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adam1davis
This reminds me of "Rainbow's End" by Vernor Vinge: A "coordinator" is someone
who combines the efforts of multiple people and this is where the "biggest and
most famous money" will be (has been?) found. See page 50-51,
[http://books.google.com/books?id=WT-
OXLZE2m8C&q=combine#...](http://books.google.com/books?id=WT-
OXLZE2m8C&q=combine#v=snippet&q=coordinating&f=false)

~~~
abecedarius
Yeah, I wondered what a coordinator's work would look like concretely and
imagined a kind of freelance product manager. Do you think that's way off?

~~~
adam1davis
In my mind it would be a combination of recruiter, product manager, and maybe
architect

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patrickk
_Suppose you have an idea for a startup company and you don't want to quit
your job yet because you don't know if you could bring together the other
talent and resources to pull it off. Wouldn't it be great if you could perform
a "hypothetical" search that collects people who would, in theory, be willing
to make themselves, or their money, available if you can pull together all of
the other parts of your startup? That way no one has to take the first risky
step until the company is fully formed in a virtual way. You and your team of
conditional future employees can work out the business model details before
anyone takes the first risky step. Think of it as Match.com for startups._

Don't some people (many?) people put up a site with a 'buy now' button and
count the number of clicks and gather email addresses to validate their
concept before spending time coding up the solution? Or post the idea to HN?
It seems possible to do some of what's being described already.

~~~
jedi_stannis
Yes, but its not turnkey. It takes a certain level of skill to put up a
landing page and track clicks on your "Buy now" button. I think he wants all
of these things to be super simple.

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VladRussian
it isn't a search per.se. he is asking about. It is a data analysis, expert
system like. He wants a computer, not a search engine. Network/Internet is a
computer. Or Google search engine farm in this case would be a pretty good
replacement/approximation for the Internet. In this case if Google let some
user-specified business logic (ie. something more complex than "search_term1
AND search_term2") to run over its digested representation of the Internet.

Cash crops profits [ordered desc] = {P(C1), P(C2), P(C3)}.

Legal cash crops = {C2, C3}.

Successfully plantable by inexperienced farmer = {C1}.

... without C1 the expert system refuses to continue further :)

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helwr
Quora is pretty good for this kind of searches

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superk
Wolfram|Alpha?

