The world is too damn slow.
- Product Delivery.
- Buying a Home.
Why does it take 5 days for Amazon to deliver my product from their warehouse less than an hour away? How could a startup step up and make the process better, faster?
Here’s the ultimate ideal:
Top opening mailboxes (think of a mailbox that opens from above one way, allowing packets to be dropped in from above). An army of quadrocopters sit charging at Amazon HQ. An order comes in. The most charged drone fires up and away it goes! Picks up the parcel, flies direct to your mailbox, and drops it in. As fast as the crow flies and with drones able to fly faster as technology develops (naturally worn out drones can be replaced with cutting edge spec as required – cw. hard drives @ a server farm). The quadrocopter drones would allow large companies to once again have actually useful R&D departments and cutting edge tech development on site. Drones would eventually work out more cost-effective compared to manual labor. Hence, the idea is destined to win. Drone tech as USP.
Every parcel would arrive faster than the last. Imagine that.
Buying a home
Why does it take 2 days to be approved for a mortgage? 2 WEEKS to close on a home? Why do I need to wait 5 days for my generic real estate lawyer to transfer a generic form to the ex-owners generic real estate lawyer?
The ideal situation: I find a home I like. I buy it. That’s it, done, instant. The pieces just fall into place. Now that’s not going to happen anytime soon because all the awesomest startups are still putting the finishing touches to their life changing social todo list apps and freelance invoicing sites which they quit there well-paying corporate jobs to take on because they wanted to “change the world”, but someone will eat this mortgage/quick house buying pie eventually and they will make billions. And since we’re not there yet, there’s room for improvement that startups can take advantage of even if they’re happy with just a tiny slice.
5 years to get a PhD? Exactly 3 years for University degree worthy knowledge irrespective of abilities and speed of learning? Why do I need 10 weeks at 2 hours a week to learn pottery in an evening class when I’d rather learn it all over an entire single weekend? Do I really need to spend the most efficient learning years of my life in a boring classroom doing crossword puzzles because the teacher had too much to drink last night? and why does it all cost so much?
We can do better…and not just Khan Academy better. I mean REALLY better, bricks and windows better.
If education is genuinely useful, as it is implied to be, then teaching faster, better, at lower cost and targeting to student abilities should be our primary aim. It’s not difficult to do this, given such an inefficient system to work with.
So what’s stopping us? Regulation? Historic institutions and systems? Apathy? Perception of insurmountable obstacles? Lack of resources?
Here’s what I propose. Let’s start a new education establishment. Teaching things OUR way. If our way is genuinely better, it will win out. If our way is better people will gladly pay extra for it. It will win out eventually.
It just takes time…
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