Last Update: 2022-07-16
Ideas are part of the creative process. Most of those ideas will go unused.
They’re inherently useless unless we do something with them. We over-attribute ideas to ourselves, as if somehow our identity was at stake if others used those ideas. But, those ideas have value to the degree that they’re actually used to improve reality.
However, some of those ideas are good ideas, but for some reason they can’t be fully actualized:
- There aren’t enough resources to accomplish it.
- There’s not enough time to do that project in light of other projects.
- The technology simply doesn’t exist to accomplish it yet.
- Social fashions prohibit that idea from presently actualizing.
- The idea was sound, but it’s outside your specialization to accomplish it.
I’ve come up with these ideas, but have no direct plan to do anything with them. I want someone else to use them. Maybe I’ll make them myself someday, maybe not.
If you want to, we can collaborate on it. Otherwise, feel free to run with them. Please let me know if you do something with them, though, since I’m a human, and humans like to feel important.
Deferment Life Sim Game
Inspired by: Alter Ego (old MS-DOS game)
Make a “life sim” choice-based game, but where the choices don’t come into play until later.
- Someone decides to not do chores and slack off, and they later don’t have the discipline to study for a test.
- They skip out on cooking something basic, and later gain weight from not being able to pace their diet later.
The cycle:
- Mundane decisions (like doing dishes) that affect stats
- A larger eventful story that plays out based on those stats, with no player interaction
- A “what did you learn?” phase, which dramatically alters the stats
Interspersed with “moments of truth” events
- Give defining introspection periods, where the stats can become dramatically rearranged based on experiences
- e.g., discovering religious beliefs from upbringing had errors in them
- e.g., decided to center thoughts and become more focused on long-term goals
- Will basically operate as a “curve”, where it starts out catastrophically but yields highest gains in the game
- It’s essentially a Chekov’s Gun for all little, unimportant decisions
Constraints: time, game dev experience
Vimthm Game
Make a rhythm game, but using vim commands.
- A bit like Vim Adventures, but using music as a mnemonic to make it more fun and memorable.
Constraints: Time, game dev experience
Project Management IDE
Make an IDE that also functions as a project management system for developers working on a team.
- Has the ability for programmers to use notes inside it (like with Notion)
- Has a built-in chat system (like Slack)
- Has built-in support for calendar and email protocols
Constraints: need multiple protocols, has many components, may end up designing someday off of something else
Dirtfinder
Plug into all the government APIs and social networks for all related things to crimes and background.
- Use a machine learning algorithm to process the information.
- Basically a poor man’s NSA database: search a name, get all the information.
Constraints:
- I’d likely need to be a private investigator or police officer to gain access to at least some of the information.
- I have zero desire to wage lawfare over this sort of thing.
Squid Ambulation
Instead of using a propeller-inspired means of underwater conveyance that borrows heavily from birds, use a squid-based means where the water is pushed in a waveform pattern.
Reasoning:
- The modern screw was invented before aircraft, and borrows from the back end of the First Industrial Revolution. The Wright brothers were able to create flight through years of bird-watching, and we can still learn a lot about water propulsion by watching deep-sea creatures.
- It’s not unattainable, and if invented could severely cut down on turbulence.
Constraints:
- It would cost more than a stamped-out propeller, so it’d only work for specific use cases where money isn’t as much of a concern(luxury craft, military).
- I have no desire to specialize in the mechanical engineering necessary to even try doing it.
Less Well-Established Ideas
GoHostMe
- A decentralized hosting solution, where people get paid to host from other people who want hosting.
- But, unlike conventional hosting that’s “blind hosting”, let people choose who they host.