The power and decline of the polymaths

Great article, a little depressing since I identify with the curiosity and breadth of knowledge that these types of intellects develop. I feel that lots of creative thinkers are not, do not want to be, or simply cannot be specialists, and that there is a real value in this versatility and variety. To a large extent it is the breadth, not the depth of knowledge that inspires me.

http://www.moreintelligentlife.com/content/edward-carr/last-days-polymath

Idea for a basic trend description website

So there are always these trends like "cloud computing", "Social Media", and "Mobile Internet" that us tech involved people hear about, get pumped about, and understand to some extent, but what about everybody else? I feel like there are lots of places that provide technologist/very early adopter news (focused blogs lets say), and lots of places that only cover things that have become big trends that the general public can understand (the New York Times for example), but what about a place that makes the biggest trends instantly comprehensible to the larger public that can make use of it? I'm talking more basic than Wired, and with a real focus on not only what the tech is, but what the heck its for and how it can help people. Specifically. Concretely. Like Twitter for example, its powerful, but so many people don't even understand what the heck it is for. Sure some of the nuance will be lost in this, but so what? We sacrifice a little richness for a lot of reach. Ok.

Cloud Computing has been the Hot Stuff, but now what? Application Ideas? Post em!

Ok so some readers who have a lot better handle on this may find a mistake or two, but here is a basic description I wrote up for my father, who was asking about what it really was. He needs to know, he works in publishing. The question is, what are some great applications for the cloud that cannot be done with our normal infrastructure?

"Cloud Computing I understand it reasonably well. Remember that before computers became PCs on the desktop, they were mainframes? Then, every user had a terminal, but all the processing was done on a larger computer - the terminal was just the control station where you interacted with the mainframe. Cloud computing is very much going back in this direction. Instead of processing being done on your home computer or your smart phone or whatever, it is done by a larger "computer" somewhere else. The difference now is that this larger computer is not one mainframe, but a giant (and I mean giant) network of computers working together. This is the cloud. Together they have the power to process lots of requests. You can think of what Google does as cloud computing sort of since they have vast warehouses of servers stacked up, each of which is really a pretty humble machine, but working together they form a supercomputer, and with it, they give people access to services. Google docs is a very cloud computing type application, because they take what is normally a desktop application (word processing lets say) and make it into a network application - you just access the internet and use the program running in the cloud. This is why Microsoft is afraid of Google, because if Google does enough of this, the valuable windows operating system becomes obsolete. The crazy thing is that in cloud computing, your computer can become part of the cloud too though. Conceivably, the cloud could be the whole internet if everyone participated."

wiki idea

create a wiki dedicated to the cololaborative creation of self help materials. people can share their experiences and weigh in on how they achieved success or fought failure. probably based on a for-profit advertising model.

business research study idea

so people talk about how most acquisitions of businesses fail. maybe however, they are getting judged unfairly. a study could be done to quantify the full benefits of having made the aquisition. this would be similar to finding the option value of an opportunity rather than the DCF value, or looking at inaction as a steady decline of revenues rather than a steady state. competitive issues and future positions must be factored in. i beleive it is very likely that many of these acquistions has more value than people will admit.

entrepreneurship idea

start an entrepreneur training center, that is like an mba program but all experience based. the students will be tasked with starting up to 10 businesses. the first business they will start with no guidance but some assistance, then new businesses are started with more and more direct guidance and specific learning objectives. at the end of the project they are tasked with starting another project, again with no guidance, and there they can express all the skills they have learned. if any business really takes off, the business people are free to leave at any time, and in fact encouraged to do so. payment for this training will be minimal to cover base salaries and costs only but the school will own part of every business started and so will the professors. as the businesses pay off the school will become well funded and the teachers will get paid well, directly in line with the performance of the students. this place will give people a free time away from work to start a business, and allow them to take advantage of student loans. it will also become a place where funders can go to find good investment opportunities, and companies can go for acquisition targets.

archival idea

create a book, dvd or other static information item (a book works so well because no other tech is needed for it to work) that is a year in review of wikipedia. this would make a great christmas present, and can be made by pulling content out at a certain time, making sure it is clean, and publishing it. the articles that have recieved the most activity (hits and edits) over the year would be top candidates for inclusion. revenue issue not clear now - name could be licensed and project operated at a profit, or it could be done by volunteer workers and sold at cost. anyway it would be interesting to have annual benchmarks of how the world is changing according to the grand mind of wikipedia.

art idea

oh man this one is so bad but kind of funny in a stupid sort of way. would be kind of nice to see mixed in with a set of stuffy type art. i think that would be the real art in this idea. ok so here it is... you have a little booth sort of like a voting booth for just your head and upper body. the piece is called 'album' - outside it has the title written small but conspicuously. the whole thing looks serious and beautiful. Inside the private curtained area is a book that has a picture of a plumber type dude on the cover. His name is Al. inside the book you have pictures of his bum. al bum. album. like i said, stupid, but the placement, the setup and the experience would make it not bad art. people like to get tricked a little bit and in my opinion its good to suprise people, make them laugh, and question where they are and what they're doing. album. hehehe.

Education Idea

Problem: when teenagers get in trouble and have to go to jail/juvenile hall, etc. any existing problems at school get exacerbated.

Possible Solution: provide a program in the place of detention to keep the classroom continuity going. have HS classes taught there and have some sort of (digital) connection to the schoolwork currently being assigned by the teacher.