[Money] Passive Income Sources

This is not an original article by me but I found it highly useful:
https://www.listenmoneymatters.com/passive-income-ideas/

There are some other sites which are more specifically focused:

eBooks
https://bullshit.ist/how-i-make-400-a-month-in-passive-income-by-self-publishing-68fa948edff5

https://www.thebalancesmb.com/make-money-selling-ebooks-online-4122181

企业家的必有：智商（IQ）和情商（EQ）

昨日我妈给我发了一篇新闻讲英国的一个叫Nick D'Alosio的高中生卖了他的软件给雅虎公司，一下子就得到估计三千万美元，并且立马成为雅虎的一位雇员。当我读了New York Times^的新闻报告之后，我对他的背景起码有了初步的了解，尤其注意了他同时拥有智商和情商。他的智商必定很显然，能编出算法可以缩短长篇信息给读者轻易的读是需要高等的技术。可使他可以在十五岁就拿到风险资本家的支持是因为他有充分的情商，知道怎么跟人家说明他的想法并且可以使人家对他有信任。Brian Wong，之前世上最年轻收到创业基金的企业家，说Nick D'Alosio没有任何犹豫或不安全感，明确表达了他对Summly软件的目标。

在科技世界里同时拥有智商情商的人并不多，往往技术人员缺少情商而商人却缺少科技智商*。当我在学校时上有关商业课时，我发现学商业的学生打扮外貌和表达能力远远超过工程学生的。出了校园在各种活动上我发现并没有太多的区别，在跟某个陌生人在某个会场沟通时，我一般可以猜测这位是否是工程师或科学家。我建议缺少情商的人该把自己放到不太舒服的社交环境里，逼自己实验怎么跟外人交流！同时我也建议缺少智商的人该花时间学些技术性的知识或技术，多读读科技的报纸很文章，试试编写一些简单的程序，或做些简单的实验，这样说不定在脑子里会突然冒出个千万美元的主意！

^http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/26/business/media/nick-daloisio-17-sells-summly-app-to-yahoo.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1364394786-sLelxUMGe6Xfywh43ep8uQ

*在这里，我指的智商是对科技有关的知识和技术。

Self-Improvement: Skills and Knowledge/技术和知识

Someone told me recently that highlighting my skills is better than pigeon-holding my role to that of aerospace. In other words, my skills can be transferable across multiple disciplines whereas my knowledge typically cannot. Skills is the how while knowledge is the what.

While doing research though, much of what happens initially is not developing skills but rather building a foundation of knowledge. The knowledge give you the bricks that can form a house and the skills give you the tools to put the bricks together. Without knowledge, just having skill is not enough while with skill and no knowledge, you have to learn a lot.

My mother is a good example. When she switched from forestry to oncology (cancer research), she had to quickly build her knowledge of the human body. Previously, she only knew about plant cells so she had to learn about human cells from the bottom up. However, since she had the skills of a molecular biologist, she could still do research while learning about how the human cells work.

If you only have skills and knowledge, you can be a good scientist or engineer but not an excellent one. The last element you need is creativity. This will be discussed in another short essay later.

今早当我在洗澡时，突然想起来一月前修改简历的事情。一个在石油行业的家伙打了电话给我提议我的简历需要修改因为我在上面提到太多次“太空”这个词，说我因该强调我的可以多种行业运转的技术。

但是，当在做研究时，不少一开始发生的不是发展技术而是建立知识基础。知识会给你可以建好房子的砖块，技术可以给你工具拼合砖块。两项不能缺少一项。

我母亲是个好例子。当她从林学转到肿瘤学时，她之前只懂植物细胞，没研究过人体细胞。但是因为她有分子生物学的技术，当她在学人体细胞是同时可以做研究。

要是你只有技术和知识，你可以是个不错的科学家或工程师但不可能是个优秀的。最后需要的成分是创造力。这在以后的短篇散文再提吧。

Entrepreneurship: Some Ideas

Recently, I have been rediscovering my creativity. Over the span of last year, my creative spirit has dipped, probably due to a combination of tedious managerial and organizational duties I held as well as a persistent nagging financial worry. Now, I have reduced my boredom and anxiety allowing my mind to dedicate a portion of the day to dream and think of new projects to pursue in the future.

I have listed out the creative ideas which I plan to work on in the next decade:

1. Predict Plan Website (Time Management Tool)
I started this out a while ago but stopped on it since I realized it's far more difficult than anticipated. I want to create a web application that can take your schedule and your mood which matches your schedule and analyze it through some algorithms to offer you the best schedule for tomorrow or even several days in advance. I realized after two months of working on it that I need to get another web developer to help me as well as talking to psychologists and management experts to actually develop the algorithm.

Income will be from advanced user subscriptions which will charge monthly.

2. Funny Survival Book (Print Information)
This will be a survival book which is also funny. Most survival books are terribly boring. When I'm dying or close to dying, I will like to be able to laugh at a last funny joke. I want to write a similar book with humor like Max Brooks' Zombie Survival Guide.

Income will be from book sales and collecting royalties. Originally, it can be sold via Amazon Kindle.

3. Subliminal Website (Social Media Website)
This website will allow users to upload a stream of images and one line of text. The image algorithm will then take the images and text and combine them in a way that the original message is lost to the conscious mind. However, the subconscious mind will still be able to decipher the message. Users can then take these messages and spread them like a virus on the web impacting millions with the hidden messages. I will need to talk to some cognitive scientists and visual perception researchers to develop the algorithm.

Income will be from advanced user subscriptions which will allow more images to be uploaded and no restriction on length of text.

4. Bottle Rockets for Kids (Social Entrepreneurship)
This social organization will help kids in poor neighborhoods build bottle rockets. I saw an inspiring video a little while ago on poor kids in slums who were so inspired by playing music made from junk. While I was sitting at the airport in France a month or so ago drinking from a water bottle, I thought to myself: Why can't the same inspiration for space can't be translated to these kids? This organization will send rocket scientists to poor slums around the world and teach them how to build bottle rockets from empty bottles and junk.

Income will be from government and private foundation donations as a nonprofit.

5. Slow Time Choices (Entertainment/Film)
Time shouldn't always go this fast. There's plenty of movies which show action scenes in bullet time. Just look at the Matrix or any John Woo film. However, what about having an entire film which plays at slow motion and yet doesn't annoy the viewer since it's so slow? What I want to do is take slow motion in short sections and string them together. For instance, the first scene can be a glass vase falling from a table crashing onto a marble floor. The second scene is a guy running  across the room towards the vase to catch it before it falls to the ground and breaks. The third scene is a closeup of the second hand on the guy's watch while he is running. These three scenes alternate between each other. The purpose of this project is to promote the idea of stopping and appreciating the nature of time.

Income will be from a crowdfunding site such as Kickstarter.

Entrepreneurship: Bottles for Rockets

While drinking the last drops of the Vittel spring water bottle, I just had a social entrepreneurship idea. Water rockets can be easily built from bottles and some metal, plastic, or even paper fins. These items are common in developing nations but bottle rockets are uncommon.

I saw an inspiring video recently about kids who live in slums that made beautiful musical instruments out of junk. Music brought meaning to their lives that otherwise would be just dirty and miserable. It brought magic. Similarly, space can also bring magic.

Imagination can be fostered in even the worst places. These kids' interest in science and technology are very limited due to lack of exposure to books, videos, and educated peers or parents.Yet, if they can make bottle rockets out of scrap, they can see that the magic power is all around them. This can be an excellent plan for developing nations and even developed countries with slums.

Business: Generosity in Networking

A network functions because there's recognition of mutual need. The central idea that many people miss in the professional world is the concept of a finite mutual need. In other words, people tend to keep score since they believe the amount of social equity is limited. It's ideas like:

- I won't do something for you now since you can't do anything for me in the foreseeable future.

- I'll do this for you since you've helped me in the past.

- I'll do this for you now so that you can help me in the future when I need it.

What people are missing is the concept of infinite social capital. Instead of thinking like the above and how you can make someone owe you so you can ask them for favors later, you ought to consider your network of exchanges like the Internet, i.e. everyone benefits with more active connections regardless of which direction the flow is going at the moment.

This is similar to how friendships and relationships should work. You should not be thinking of what you can get from the other person but rather what you can give to the other person. Of course, for anything to last, the reciprocal should also be true. The other person will also give to you whether or not you expect a payback.

The ideal is to transform your professional network into a personal network so that the other person can operate on the same level of trust as you. Granted, this doesn't always work but why not try? A consistent lack of generosity is not a display of rugged individualism but rather a display of blatant selfishness. Individualism is merely maintaining your own identity regardless of outside circumstance. It has very little to do with giving or receiving.

Business: Kickstarter to Fund Projects

Often, you have an idea you wish to pursue to fruition but you are blocked by the reality of insufficient funding. So what can you do? Run around asking for investors or borrowing money from the bank? That's the traditional way. Recently, I discovered this cool site, http://www.kickstarter.com/, which funds projects purely through individual donations. The catch though is that the donor doesn't donate right away. You, the project owner, must set a money goal that you're trying to reach within a time frame. If you don't get enough money by that point, there will be no donation. This is to ensure that all projects actually get sufficient money to be successfully completed.

Anyone can sign up for an account and submit a project allowing anyone to donate if they're interested. The only limitations are that the projects must

1. Have clearly defined goals and expectations.

2. Be creative. It must fit within the fields of Art, Comics, Dance, Design, Fashion, Film, Food, Games, Music, Photography, Publishing, Technology, and Theater.

3. Not be for charity or donation.

4. Offer rewards and not financial incentives. You cannot offer ownership, financial returns, repayment, etc. Instead, you must offer rewards like copies of the work, fun experiences, etc.

If your project fits these requirements, all you have to do is then fill out a short proposal form answering a few basic questions:

1. What is your project (750 characters max)

2. What rewards will you offer? (1000 characters)

3. Where can we find out more about you and your project?

4. Which category fits your project?

5. How much money would you like to raise?

6. How did you hear about us?

And if you're looking to fund some project, there's loads for your money to go into some worthy cause: http://www.kickstarter.com/discover

Some of the more interesting projects (in my view) that entrepreneurial-minded people have raised include. Check them out and/or post one of your own:

ISS-Notify

A LED light that shines whenever the ISS passes over your head.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/natronics/iss-notify?ref=live

http://mechanicalintegrator.com/2011/iss-notify/

And this was also interesting since originally he made one to detect near earth asteroids:

http://mechanicalintegrator.com/2010/near-earth-asteroid-lamp-at-science-hack-day-sf/

Paintings for Satellites

Rooftop paintings for the specific purpose of art observable from orbit.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1145342167/paintings-for-satellites

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mollydilworth/

Team Prometheus N-Prize Mission

Launch a small satellite into LEO from a high-altitude balloon of 100000 feet. Note that this funding failed.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1775006829/team-prometheus-n-prize-mission?ref=live

http://www.teamprometheus.org/

Lumi Co. Textile Products

A new textile technology that makes some products made of the material.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lumi/lumi-co-a-new-textile-printing-technology

Windfarms Project

Grassroots way of growing vegetables in the windows of homes in an aesthetically pleasing way.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/windowfarms/turn-our-cities-windows-into-vertical-veggie-farm

http://www.windowfarms.org/

Aperture Science Sentry Turret

Sentry gun based on the one from the amazing game Portal

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sirwolfgang/aperture-science-sentry-turret?ref=category

Mapping Gulf Oil Spill

Group of citizens got together to build balloons and kites attached with cameras to map out the Gulf oil spill.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jywarren/grassroots-mapping-the-gulf-oil-spill-with-balloon

[Biz] Thoughts on Not Writing Business Plans

I have often heard that you need to write a business plan before you go out and "do it". Honestly, my feelings are a bit ambivalent about this. To me, writing a plan is necessary at a certain point but before you get there, you don't need a plan. Conducting a thorough market study seems downright retarded when you're engaging in something that's high-risk in the first place. How do you know if it's going to work or not until you start experimenting?

At a certain point, yes, it'll be a good idea to examine your competitors. This is especially true when you have a prototype of the developed product or service and actually want to start making $. But before you get to that stage, what's the point? Seems to me just like an empty dream without any content backing it up. What do you think?