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How do you learn to be creative? | brianto2010: Be around creative people. Participate alongside them. |
How do you learn to be creative? | tsally: You don't. It's not so much that you learn to be creative as it is finding something you're inspired by. I've never seen someone fail to be creative at something they were inspired by. I'm not sure you can teach someone to be creative about a non inspirational thing. How do you find the inspirational thing? Iteration. |
How do you learn to be creative? | tokenadult: I overheard an MIT admissions representativeWhen was this? Undergraduate admissions? |
How do you learn to be creative? | Zev: Its pretty hard (if not impossible) to write a step by step guide on how to be creative. This makes it very hard to teach someone creativity, which is probably what the admissions rep was talking about.But if I had to take a gander at answering "How to be creative", It would go something along the lines of... Take initiative. Do something, anything. Then ask "What if this was done differently?" and follow through on the question or modification. See where that leads you and question/modify that. Ad infinitum.Once you start, don't ever stop doing things or questioning everything about them. If you're stuck, or just need a change in something, talk to other people. Creativity doesn't mean being alone forever. |
How do you learn to be creative? | erlanger: You can't learn creativity, but you can keep it in good shape. It has plenty to do with social inhibitions as well. With a tendency to question others' ideas and to trust yourself comes creativity. Here's a start: Be more creative than to ask others for this answer. |
How do you learn to be creative? | wenbert: I think you would have to change your mindset, the way you think etc. |
SEO Mystery - What's this 'MarchSEO' guy up to? | qeorge: (S)he's probably building an autosubmitter of some kind, and testing it using arbitrary stories.You're getting a ton of free links, so it can't hurt you. I wouldn't worry about it. |
SEO Mystery - What's this 'MarchSEO' guy up to? | quizbiz: Pardon me but isn't this the point of social news sites? To spread the word about issues, articles, etc. If you didn't post the articles on all these different sites, why can't he? |
How do you learn to be creative? | chaosmachine: There are some interesting connections between creativity and schizophrenia.http://www.google.com/search?q=creativity+schizophreniaFurthermore, there are various drugs that induce schizophrenic-like mental states.It's been shown drugs can make you smarter, faster, stronger, why would creativity be any different. |
How do you learn to be creative? | briancooley: I don't know how to actively increase creativity, but I do know how to actively decrease my fear of failure.It seems like the less I fear failing, the more my creativity emerges. |
How do you learn to be creative? | Eliezer: http://www.overcomingbias.com/2007/10/original-seeing.htmlhttp://www.overcomingbias.com/2007/10/cached-thoughts.htmlhttp://www.overcomingbias.com/2007/10/how-to-seem-and.htmlhttp://www.overcomingbias.com/2007/10/outside-the-box.html |
How do you learn to be creative? | bkbleikamp: "Observe everything. Communicate well. Draw, draw, draw." Frank Thomas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Thomas_(animator)) |
How do you learn to be creative? | vamsee: Hmm, I think creativity comes from being bold, and not being afraid to experiment and putting something out there that is uniquely your own. I takes being comfortable with oneself and what you have to say. And being able to handle ridicule/disappointment if it flops, and being able to keep experimenting. |
How do you learn to be creative? | rjurney: Feed your muse by consuming creative things, and then repetition. |
How do you learn to be creative? | jyothi: Have a lot of peace, smile - be happy then pump in a lot of passion, get excited and just think how to make things better. |
How do you learn to be creative? | spaghetti: Solving algorithm puzzles helps a lot for general creativity. I think the most important thing to understand and embrace when being creative is: a lot of people will not understand/like/approve of your creative efforts. Do NOT let this get you down or discourage you. Enjoy being creative simply because it's fun. Don't think about the opinions of other people! |
How many of you use ad blocking on most websites? | nopassrecover: Heh strange seeing people like Google ads - I tend to view them as the graffiti of the web.They are nearly always irrelevant, have a very high proportion of spam/scam associated sellers and don't have enough information or value for me to click them. |
How do you learn to be creative? | whacked_new: I'm with the camp that it's hard to teach. I'm talking about "creative" in the romantic sense of the word: the kind that is stereotypically exhibited by mad scientists, hermit authors, and bipolar playwrights. The kind of "useful abnormality" that does not occur to the common mind.In these cases, I would argue the creativity stems from a different brain structure, and I would not be wrong in saying so. To this extent, it cannot be taught. But in the same vein, everybody is creative in their own ways. But it needs to be coaxed. The coaxing is the job of the perceptive teacher, and I think the early years of life are critical for healthy development in this area.How do you learn to be creative? I would sum it up as "de-inhibit your brain." If you grew up in an oppressive environment where you could be punished for any arbitrarily bad expression, it is imaginable that you would be conditioned to avoid thinking in certain non-standard ways. |
How do you learn to be creative? | grandalf: Creativity is the process of getting your brain not to shut down ideas that it comes up with before you can really give them a chance.One way to do this is to focus on asking questions:- What if this is the wrong approach?
- How can this be made more general?
- Should it be more general?
- Should I be doing the opposite?
- What other uses might this have?
- What problem is this a better solution to?
- What are the pieces of this idea?
- What can I make with each piece?
- (Repeat first steps)
- How can I implement this idea?
- On a budget?
- With an unlimited budget?
- "Green"
- For Red staters
- For blue staters
- For the third world?
- For free?
- Why not do this before now?
- Why not do this after now?You get the idea. Just let your questioner run wild and enjoy the process. I recommend asking about 1000 questions and figuring out what makes you most excited or what you think packs the most punch.I think creativity is more of the absence of a trait (excessive internal "downmodding" of thoughts) vs the presence of a trait.Oh, and this may be a bit cliche, but sleep on it. Doze off thinking about it and then maybe in the shower the next day you'll get some ideas.Also brainstorming with a friend can be a fun way to flush out cool ideas. |
How do you learn to be creative? | simianstyle: Get outside of your comfort zone and experiment with things that would otherwise seem 'ugly' to you. |
How do you learn to be creative? | jpedrosa: Over produce according to one's own standards. ;-)Keep pushing. |
How do you learn to be creative? | tripngroove: "creativity" is all about process. come up with methods for putting ideas / objects / anything together and when you have a whole series, pick the ones that are most intriguing and run with them.it's a tough sell to imply that any product, any idea, or any thing is creative in the sense that it appeared out of some sort of magical, big-bang of inspiration. your brain works by building connections, so anything you build is going to be an expression of everything you know; it's just a matter of not being afraid to experiment, and of iterating as fast as possible to find combinations of ideas virulent enough to claw their way above the slew and become something special.and the energy you spend searching, identifying and implementing those combinations of ideas is directly related to the likelihood of their success... however you choose to define it.don't be afraid to fail. by failing you're educating yourself about what doesn't work, which, in turn, makes it easier to identify what will.also, when you're trying to be creative, the easiest way to fail is to not do anything at all. it's too easy to cogitate endlessly about what good solutions COULD be, rather than taking real steps to implement and identify what good solutions ARE.i'd go with nike... "just do it." ...or maybe, "obey your thirst." |
How do you learn to be creative? | braindead_in: Dissect things which appeal to you. Break down the elements. Get to the root of it. Learn from them. Most importantly keep it simple. |
How do you learn to be creative? | ambulatorybird: I believe Einstein once said, "The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources." |
SEO Mystery - What's this 'MarchSEO' guy up to? | acro: I don't think there is a scam, he is just submitting interesting content to build up his profile. He didn't copy the articles, at least the couple of submissions i checked. Its good for you, its good for him, whats the problem? |
How do you learn to be creative? | stevenjames: Apply your imagination. |
How do you learn to be creative? | DarkShikari: I wrote a post here:http://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/862en/you_and_your_...that, IMO, somewhat explains how "creativity" comes about--how seemingly great ideas come out of nothing (or do they?). |
How do you learn to be creative? | cb33: think different |
How do you learn to be creative? | chris11: Scientific America had a good article on creativity: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=how-to-unleash-your-crea...Brief guidelines for creativity:1. Get a good system for capturing and preserving new ideas without judging their merits.2. Challenge yourself. Challenging problems will force you to use more diverse skills.3. Learn. Become skilled in more than one area.4. Manage your physical and social surroundings. Get to know a diverse set of people. Make sure your day is filled with interesting and novel things. |
How do you learn to be creative? | jacoblyles: Depends on the field. If you are a musician, empirically I would recommend drugs. |
How many of you use ad blocking on most websites? | mooism2: I want to block all adverts, except search engine ads, which are sometimes useful and never prevent the page from loading.In practice, I only use AdBlock+ and FlashBlock to block ads; if I used GreaseMonkey too I could probably filter out ads in GMail and Facebook, that appear as part of the html.I would pay my ISP to filter out adverts.It would be interesting to find out how much sites would receive for the ads I'm not seeing, and whether I'd be prepared to pay that much not to see them. |
Why are contracts written so poorly? | quellhorst: The problems with contracts are that they are written for lawyers by lawyers. Not the actual users of the documents.There is a 'plain english' style that is much better than the standard legalese.http://www.cap-press.com/books/1476 |
Why are contracts written so poorly? | noonespecial: However, I have been going through this template for over 4 hours and still unable to understand a single line because its just so bad english.Contracts are not actually english, although they may contain familiar words. Contracts are actually a kind of code designed to be run in a courtroom. Many of the silly sounding words and phrases are actually reserved words in this code and have special meanings.Sometimes the obfuscation is deliberate on the part of the legal profession in order to keep them all employed. (At least there is no incentive for them to make it simpler.)Don't feel bad. Imagine how a lawyer would feel if confronted by a large perl script that his entire livelihood may or may not depend on. :) |
Why are contracts written so poorly? | moeffju: Maybe people could just agree on a canon of shorthand phrases (in clear english) that expand to legalese mumbo-jumbo. Then slap a huge disclaimer "this document uses ClearContract[tm] shorthand" on.Seriously though, this problem is not limited to contracts. Most of the law is written in a convoluted way, because there's so much legacy code in there, and also because codifying real life is just such a complex undertaking. |
Why are contracts written so poorly? | jodrellblank: I sometimes wish it was as simple as saying "this contract to be interpreted in the spirit of the following examples", and then a small summary + examples. |
How do you learn to be creative? | bengtan: I used to read an article 'How to be creative'. This is the updated version:Ignore everybody
http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/000932.html |
Why are contracts written so poorly? | adilsaleem: I wish someone invented python for contracts :) |
How to ban users from your site? | chuffwaffle: Proxies make it impossible to ban anyone. You can detect open proxies like slashdot does and prevent anyone from using any open proxy, but offenders can still use non-open proxies. You can charge for access like somethingawful does so that when you ban someone's account they have to pay $10 or so for another. That's about it. |
Why are contracts written so poorly? | medianama: You'll get used to it. Its always difficult understanding/negotiating contract for the first few times.I started liking that language after going through that process a few times.Tip: Try to read as slow as you can and don't miss any word/phrase. Look up dictionary if you need to. |
Why are contracts written so poorly? | Flankk: Legalese is formal English intended to be very specific with respect to the Law. Terms used in a contract are often described in a definition section at the start of the contract. The contract will make more sense when you read the definitions first. However, contracts are designed to be legally sound; they are not designed for readability.I can't help but point at the spelling and grammatical errors in your post as some of the issue in your understanding. Nonetheless, contracts are a daunting read for most anyone. |
Please review my Hybrid Mail Site BlueMailCentral.com | slater: One thing that I immediately saw: You seem to be sorting the currency dropdown on the frontpage according to the country's name. Which isn't listed. So instead of making me hunt for "CHF" (I'm in Switzerland), sort the list alphabetically. Seems a no-brainer to me.Also, please don't play favourites: "USD" should not be the top-most, active currency in that dropdown. |
Please review my Hybrid Mail Site BlueMailCentral.com | dreur: I really like the little animation on the homepage.
Will try your service soon. |
Please review my Hybrid Mail Site BlueMailCentral.com | wlievens: Nice concept and execution, but you really have to work on your english. "How bluemailcentral works?" is the demo page title's for instance. It should be "How does bluemailcentral work?". I suggest you find a good proofreader.(this is advice, not an insult) |
How to ban users from your site? | lacker: You can't really ban users from a website that's free to the public. All you can do is bore problematic users into going away. |
Please review my Hybrid Mail Site BlueMailCentral.com | perokreco: You should include a list with locations of your printing locations, and approximate time delay, as I would say those are pretty important. I had to email you to find out the location and speed. Moreover I think that an "affinity" program, allowing people to sign up to print/mail stuff at low-quantity places might be an idea worth looking into. |
Please review my Hybrid Mail Site BlueMailCentral.com | perokreco: Moreover, a web interface that allowed someone to upload a doc or pdf instead of having to install software would allow people to use the service from public computers and non-windows computers. |
Please review my Hybrid Mail Site BlueMailCentral.com | m_eiman: Do you have an API for using this from something other than your application? Ideal for my needs would be a web service that I can post PDF:s to... |
Please review my Hybrid Mail Site BlueMailCentral.com | terpua: Check out http://postful.com - they allow you to send postal mail via email. They also have one price for US and one price for international and support postcards.They have an API. |
Why are contracts written so poorly? | dctoedt: It takes some work, but contracts can be expressed in short, clear sentences and paragraphs. A leading proponent of this style is Ken Adams (see http://www.adamsdrafting.com),In the interest of promoting "code reuse" by contract drafters, I've been building a community form file of contract forms and clauses - see http://www.firstdrafter.com (in progress). |
Why are contracts written so poorly? | radu_floricica: OP should clarify this, but i'm pretty sure he's not referring to legalese in particular, but simply bad English. As in grammatically incorrect and badly written. I've seen it too. |
Please review my Hybrid Mail Site BlueMailCentral.com | profgubler: From this teaser in teh bottom right, "What does BlueMailCentral do for the environment?
Because you use BlueMailCentral, your CO2 emission is lesser than when you would not use BlueMailCentral. The exact amount of reduced CO2 is impossible to calculate, but a reduction is.."Lesser should be less. |
Online Degree Programs | stonemetal: USC, Purdue, heck even harvard have online only degree options. Try finding a school you actually want to go to then see if they offer an online program. There is no need to scrape the bottom of the barrel just because you need a little flexibility. Find a school you want to go to and see what they offer. |
How do you learn to be creative? | HeyLaughingBoy: It may be difficult to teach, but it's not hard to learn.1) Hang around other creative people2) Do stuff. Just try to build something, don't be afraid of failing. Some people get together for "bad art nights"3) I am always inspired when I visit museums, galleries, etc. It just makes me want to do something |
Anyone else notice a higher churn rate for the front page? | nopinsight: I'm not sure, but I think it's too fast. Some worthwhile topics could be easily missed if one stays off HN for just half a day. (Even with AutoPager, after 2-3 days, most topics go off the first few pages entirely.)Perhaps there should be some sort of 'classic' or 'long-term' article tab that people can check out.The quality of those articles/discussions would likely be higher as well. |
Anyone else notice a higher churn rate for the front page? | trickjarrett: I tend to skim the front page and then hit the new section for the majority of my time, and I don't think we're running much faster than we have been. This is obviously unscientific and I have no data to back it, but from my perspective I haven't seen that many new stories.Perhaps its an influx of new involved members who are actively voting? |
Anyone else notice a higher churn rate for the front page? | vaksel: I think it just became much easier to get frontpaged. I see a ton of stories getting front paged with 2, 3 upvotes. |
How do you learn to be creative? | ggruschow: One way may be to get stupid."Thinking outside of the box" is tough when you're used to living in the box. Maybe it's easier to just get away from things you're familiar with to see creativity expressed.For instance, take your average boring chemistry student out of a lab, and tell them they've got to make 20 loaves of bread every day next week for the local bakery.. but don't tell them how, let them look it up, or give them the standard equipment. Just give them the ingredients -- maybe even throw in more than is necessary including some that aren't normally used.I bet you'd get some creative work out of people that weren't considered very creative in their normal work. |
Anyone else notice a higher churn rate for the front page? | zacharydanger: If you're subscribed in Google Reader, you can view details about the feed and it does show a steady incline in "items posted" over the last 30 days. |
How do you learn to be creative? | josefresco: Get happy and optimistic. Creativity comes to me when I'm feeling good about life and my future. Pessimism and slacking creeps in when I'm down and feeling negative about past/future events. |
Please review my Hybrid Mail Site BlueMailCentral.com | vaksel: frankly I think if you want to focus this much on being green, your actual name should be green. So I would spin off as a separate site greenmailcentral.com and link to that from your original site.And on the greenmailcentral.com site, I would let users pick some enviro related domains to use as their emails. |
Anyone else notice a higher churn rate for the front page? | csomar: i'm afraid this become like "Digg". In past, the time between stories that hit front page (in digg) is 1 to 2 hours, now it's less than 10 minutes and a new story hit it.That's why I rarely upvote stories in HN, if we all upvote a little only Worthwhile topics that we can increase the quality. |
Online Degree Programs | jhawk28: DePaul University has the largest online CS programs. Illinois Institute of Technology has a decent program too. |
How do you learn to be creative? | qaexl: This link was posted up on YC recently: http://the-programmers-stone.com/about/While it does not directly address "creativity", I have found that the "juxtapositional thinking" state it describes as a required state for creative thinking. Look on the second article for the precise neuroscience.In summary, the pre-frontal cortex has (at least) two different mode: focused attention, and juxtapositional thinking. The first works well when you have predictable task order. You know precisely what steps you need to do something in. However, it also shuts down any chance you have to be "inspired" or "creative". It is the precise reason when you try to be creative, you stop being creative.The site lists some easy ways to encourage juxtapositional thinking in people. There are other methods I have found help trigger this.I do want to point out though, the juxtapositional state will not automatically make you more creative, though it is a pre-condition that needs to be fulfilled before you creative insight pops up in your head.However, this precondition does show why creativity is difficult to teach. It is something you learn, not something you teach. It requires a state of mind that you have to access yourself, you cannot be simply be told "be creative".Whatever the case may be, creativity is not a genetic or an edge case. |
How do you learn to be creative? | csomar: Creativity needs to think: Good Learning and practicing.It's simple, if you want to write English, then first you should learn the basics of grammar and spelling. Next, depth learning, like reading articles on news papers or blogs. Finally practicing like writing on own blog or on forums. |
Anyone else notice a higher churn rate for the front page? | marksutherland: http://news.ycombinator.com/bestThe highest rated posts in the last N days (not sure what N is). Not very well documented, but interesting to know about. |
How do you learn to be creative? | wensing: Give yourself a chance to have an original thought--dramatically reduce or eliminate TV, and at least temporarily cut out 90% of the music you listen to. You'd be surprised how stuck in a rut you are until you try it. |
Anyone else notice a higher churn rate for the front page? | AndrewHampton: I don't think the churn is a big problem yet, but I think the position of stories on the front page uses a formula similar to gravity. Upward acceleration is determined by upvotes/time and downward acceleration is determined by the time since submission. pg could always decrease the acceleration of "gravity" on the formula (to allow popular stories to stay on the front page longer) and/or decrease the "acceleration" per upvote (to prevent less popular stories from jumping to the front page so quickly).So if this becomes a big problem, it shouldn't be too hard to fix. |
How do you learn to be creative? | ganley: Just produce. A lot. It's hard to produce original work in a medium without first mastering the medium itself. There's an old chestnut about the pottery class in which half was graded on quality and the other on quantity; in the end, the quantity half produced better work. Picasso's early work, while technically good, was pretty run-of-the-mill as far originality.Also, as some other commenters have said, expose yourself to as much different stimulus as possible. If you're not an out-of-the-box thinker, this serves to make your box bigger. |
Online Degree Programs | walesmd: I recently discovered Troy University has an office local to me as well as offering the Computer Science degree online.Growing up, near Tallahassee, Troy was always seen as a great school for those individuals going into fields like Sports Medicine. |
Anyone else notice a higher churn rate for the front page? | mattmaroon: I've noticed that too. Big stories (i.e. ones written by Paul Graham) used to stay up here for days, they do no longer. My guess is they increased the time factor to account for the increase in traffic. |
Why are contracts written so poorly? | systemtrigger: It's a problem. No modern man understands all his written obligations.> Perhaps an opportunity of a startup that would introduce a new way of writing contractsYes! Every contract I've ever seen is just an analog program, a decision tree really. Legal concepts are mostly classes. Since you can do things like multiple inheritance with OO you should be able to mimic contract law in a program. But is designing such a service lucrative?The hardest language in contracts - apart from all the whereupons and nods to the Magna Carta - has to do with contingency planning and minor details. It's all the "if A then B when (C | D)" cover-your-ass reserve. That stuff can get pretty terse and for most people it's a total waste of time to muddle through, so we just sign it and hope it didn't give away our wife as chattel. Of course when we cut out these complexities our contracts might not be as watertight. But I think this should be a judgment call between the participants. What good is a "safe" agreement if no one but a judge can understand it?You would probably want to focus on a small, profitable subset of contracts. Take web startup investing. There ought to be a way for Startup X to have a form on its site that lets me invest in their company. Maybe that's just too wild of an idea for 2009 but if startups become financially transparent -- I mean really transparent -- micro investing is bound to happen. Government loopholes notwithstanding. |
Please review my Hybrid Mail Site BlueMailCentral.com | adityakothadiya: clickable link: http://www.bluemailcentral.com |
Anyone else notice a higher churn rate for the front page? | pg: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=553959 |
Anyone else notice a higher churn rate for the front page? | TweedHeads: Take a look at the front page. The right half is blank space.That space can be used to show two sections: popular & upcoming. |
How do you learn to be creative? | KentBeck: My experience is that I am often creative but I am inconsistent in my follow through. When I get an odd idea, at my best I just try it. That makes me more likely to have another odd idea, and if I try that the cycle accelerates. If instead I listen to The Editor and get back to the humdrum, the cycle runs in reverse: fewer ideas, less follow through, fewer ideas. So I think, paradoxically, that action is the key to creativity. It's not the ideas, it's what you do with them. |
How do you learn to be creative? | jpwagner: Learn to re-define problem statements! |
Please review my Hybrid Mail Site BlueMailCentral.com | Tacomanator: First thing I notice is some trouble with the currency widget, which is taking a long time to update when a new currency during the first few minutes after the page is loaded. I would suggest an indicator that the new currency list is on the way for these slow cases (otherwise the currency list is blank). |
Anyone else notice a higher churn rate for the front page? | themanual: So many exciting things happening in the world. Try and keep up :)The churn rate is fine!! |
Please review our (open-source) code sharing site | metachris: A friend and I have been working on this website for sharing code-snippets for the Android API for a few months now. Over the last weeks we made many improvements and are preparing the next release of the source code. The backend of the site is based on djangosnippets.org source ('cab'), with the code being released under the BSD license.We are trying our best to improve the website and to create a good user experience. Please help us by letting us know what you think about the project; we greatly appreciate any suggestions and feedback! |
How do you learn to be creative? | gcheong: Be widely read, dabble in a lot of different things and always look for opportunities to apply solutions from one field to problems in another field. |
Please review our (open-source) code sharing site | davidw: Seems a bit limited in scope. |
outsourced support | swombat: I would suggest doing it yourself first, and then, once you've already developed the FAQ and canned answers, hire someone to do a specific, time-consuming part of the support for you - rather than trying to find a whole "outsourced support" provider that will no doubt have lots of issues and restrictions. |
How do you learn to be creative? | lpolovets: Michael Michalko has two excellent books on creativity:Thinkertoys (http://www.amazon.com/Thinkertoys-Handbook-Creative-Thinking...) and
Cracking Creativity (http://www.amazon.com/Cracking-Creativity-Secrets-Creative-G...)They're both among my fave books of all time, though they are relatively similar in content so getting just one is fine.They cover a lot of different strategies for thinking creatively and outside the box, provide tons of examples, and have a lot of exercise that you can try yourself (and while it sounds cheesy, the exercises are actually fun) |
Please review my Hybrid Mail Site BlueMailCentral.com | prpon: You've mentioned in your OP that you print in the destination country. I had to carefully look for it on your website to know that. I would highlight that aspect.A friend wanted to mail his movie script to Mumbai, India from Hollywood. He wanted it to be there fast. I looked for services like yours and couldn't find anything that would print it in legal paper size and deliver quickly.
Fedex allows you to do that in the US. |
outsourced support | vaksel: I'd do this:a) Get a Google Voice account. Forget the 1-800 number, it just makes them want to call you. Get a local number that looks professional. i.e. something that looks like 1-404-444-000#b) On the #, create a voice message stating something like "please check our FAQ and if you still can't find an answer to your question, please contact our support staff via the website"This way, your new customers will give you the extra points for having a support # that they think they can call. And you won't have have to waste all that time answering questions. And 99.999% of your users will never know that the # doesn't go anywhere |
outsourced support | TomOfTTB: I had to design something like this recently for a consulting job and here's what I did. These steps were in addition to him writing a document that covered the basics of supporting the program (that he could give to support people)First, I convinced the client to not have phone support. My argument was that e-mail support was sufficient if you put a guarantee above the e-mail link (something like "every e-mail answered within an hour of being received")Second, I designed a very simple system that would allow him to hire freelance help. Basically all the support e-mails went to my custom e-mail program (I use .net and aspose components so it only took me a few hours). The e-mail program logs the question and when the support person e-mails a response it turns the response in to a knowledge base article (that the users could also view)Third, to further simplify the process I built a very simple keyword search into the e-mail program so that it could suggest solutions that might work to the support person. If the support person sees a solution they like they can send it as a reply with one click.Finally, I had him recruit people off Scriptlance. He created shifts where people could monitor the system while they were doing other things. Because they were from overseas and didn't have to speak fluent English (just write it) this labor was extremely cheap. They were then paid a flat fee plus extra for each support request. He ended up able to afford 3 people per shift, 24 hours a day with the same money he was going to pay to get one support person.Anyway, sorry for the long post but I really am kind of proud of the idea (now that I'm a few months out and I know that it worked). Hopefully if you can't do something like this it will at least help you to "think outside the box" |
outsourced support | markessien: How about getting a couple of college students who get paid on a per-call basis? Then you find a way of routing the calls to their personal lines, using for example the services that the telephone sex people use?Get cheap phones with extra numbers, so they can answer professionally, and don't open with "DUUUDE" or something like that. |
Why are contracts written so poorly? | johnnydollar: Think of Legalese as C++ for the law. Very powerful, often verbose, and very easy to get into trouble if you don't understand how it works.Many awkward sounding phrases actually refer to a specific case law precedent. Judges are disinclined to contradict a previous ruling. By inserting the phrase into a contract and both parties agreeing to the contract you actually save time/money because when it comes time to sue the issue has already been decided by the phrase. The court just needs to determine if the facts fit the previous case law.Think of these awkward sounding phrases as macros that other people have written over decades and now belong to the common code base called case law. They might be very difficult to understand at first, but their near universal meaning makes them more valuable than writing your own 'clearer' version. If your version goes to court the judge will have to interpret your new language instead of referring to prior case law. Since most judges are very busy and you clearly don't know what you were doing they will probably ignore your language. Just pray you didn't let the other party insert theirs.What's more each type of law has it's own specific phrases. A construction law attorney was explaining to me that the specific phrase 'workmanlike performance' can create a warranty that may not be implied by law for the specific services at issue. But 'does good job' isn't the same thing. |
SEO Mystery - What's this 'MarchSEO' guy up to? | checkwit: his sites don't have to rank #1 to get traffic. also other search engines might rank his sites higher. he's trying to get content to his site. |
what types of softwares are needed during (this) great depression | shaunxcode: What about ad-hoc collaborative gardening/crop sharing? Skill sharing, car pooling and generally anything that fosters real community would do well I should imagine. |
outsourced support | pmikal: I've used http://liveops.com/ with some success. On-demand agents "in the cloud". Requests can be routed to agents based on training, experience, language, time of day... |
what types of softwares are needed during (this) great depression | quoderat: A site listing foreclosed and abandoned homes for squatting?Or perhaps the same for gardening?A house trading site so that you can trade houses with someone where your and their job prospects are better?A better roommate matching site than any one I've seen so far?A kid-sitting exchange site?A more-local Ebay (not like Craig's List), more like the Ebay of old?Apprenticeships? |
what types of softwares are needed during (this) great depression | jgilliam: Make Me Dinner - a match making service that would connect people who need meals with people who can make them, presumably in their neighborhood.So a single working person indicates what kind of food they like, and mom who cooks for a family of 6 adds a couple extra portions to what she makes that night and delivers it to a couple neighbors. That pays for her whole family. Chefs could post updates of what they're cooking that night, and people could "follow" their favorite chefs and pick from the meals available. Chefs build reputations, etc. It's like the ebay for food service.It builds local community, creates opportunity for people to start their own micro-business, and it works really well in a recession -- people spend less eating out, and people who need money can make some.The potential challenges are city/state laws around food inspection, that would all have to be investigated and figured out. There are lots of caterers and personal chefs, so I assume there's a way to navigate all of that. |
what types of softwares are needed during (this) great depression | DannoHung: lootr - CRM software for thieves and scrappers. |
what types of softwares are needed during (this) great depression | markessien: This is not a depression, but an idea that would work is the house listing idea. Prices are going down, so speculators are going to rush to purchase. |
what types of softwares are needed during (this) great depression | vaksel: an iphone app that tells you where the soup kitchen is |
what types of softwares are needed during (this) great depression | FiReaNG3L: Common Sense Software, many people who created this mess could use it |
what types of softwares are needed during (this) great depression | andreyf: Well, if Google trends is any indicator of interest: http://google.com/trends?q=porn |
Possible loophole for angel investing net worth restriction? | Tangurena: Those numbers come from the SEC.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accredited_investorhttp://www.sec.gov/answers/accred.htmIf you want to incorporate a company in order to make such investments, then you're going to have to register with the SEC. The phrase that comes to mind immediately after "OMG! NO!" is "you'll be sorry!"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investment_Company_Act_of_1940 |
Why doesn't Google come up with Project Planning service? | gaius: My guess would be that Google is still smarting from this:http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/huddlechat_campfire_rip... |
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