“I have an idea worth minus a million.” | Hacker News Reader

“I have an idea worth minus a million.”

artlebedev.com

90 pointsaudionerd18 comments

Beyond being an interesting quip on business ideas, I love the interesting site design and the $2400 dream keyboard [1].

As for ice cubes for the $10 bottle of water - the ice cubes need to be packaged and delivered with the water. Sounds like a good way to differentiate yourself from other brands of expensive water.

[1] http://store.artlebedev.com/computer_add-ons/optimus-maximus...

Couldn't one just pop open a bottle, freeze some ice cubes, tell your customers you are using "ice made from brand of water" and ignore the expensive, prepackaged option from the supplier?

When I was in Thailand, at a reasonably nice hotel in Bangkhok, when we ordered water the water "opened our bottles for us" - I immediately sent them back for unopened bottles. My friends thought I was a little paranoid, but we were all cautious about the water, so not that big a deal.

I killed myself laughing when I saw the same scam being pulled by one of the characters in Slum Dog Millionaire.

In other words - if it doesn't come with a factory seal, presume that it's not factory fresh.

(You don’t actually know whether it was a scam.)

Of course I didn't, I should have written "When I saw that _class_ of scam..."

Demanding that the factory seal be intact is standard practice for traveling in the developing world. You definitely weren't paranoid.

In areas that don't have bottled water from a brand I recognize, I drink nothing but fermented beverages (I've brushed my teeth with beer).

I'd use brand-name ice cubes, if they were packaged in a known, trustworthy manner.

Carbonated drinks are also safe - the acid kills pathogens.

You can also easily carry water purification stuff - a bottle of polarpure lasts many many uses, and there are stirring wands that use UV light to kill germs. You may need to do a bit of research about what kills what, though.

Carbonated drinks are also safe - the acid kills pathogens

What acid? There's no hydrogen in CO2.

Another way to purify water is to boil for for a few minutes.

Yes, bottled water or bust is the standard mantra in the developing world.

I rememeber one of our party trying to order a Margarita with no ice in a restaurant in Zambia once.

Except in Slum Dog they actually glued the seal back on.

http://www.currentlyobsessed.com/2010/03/13/sell-ice-cream-n...

I've been in parts of the world where I had to order bottled water, not for the taste, but because bottled water contains slightly fewer Escherichia coli than the local supply. Ice was out. Demonstrably pure ice sounds like a good idea.

I suspect that this article may be about Optimus Maximus as much as anything else.

Article explicitly says: "For example, the idea of producing a keyboard with screens embedded in its every button costs somewhere around minus two million."

Many gems on that site

Here is one more

http://www.artlebedev.com/mandership/141/

I thought this was going to be about a different lesson.

For an idea to be worth a million, it's got to be worth the customers paying a total of a million, i.e. to them it's worth losing a million.

I have an idea worth "minus a million" in a different sense:

My medical condition is supposed to cost big bucks to manage and the doctors promise you no hope of actually getting well. Getting healthier has been cheaper than the conventional treatments and yields the bonus that the healthier I get, the more productive I am while at the same time costs have steadily declined.

Now I just need to "package" it and figure out how to market it.

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