Some Trillion Dollar Problems

Joe Cooney was telling me about some Million Dollar Ideas of his, and they were nice. But since then I've been thinking about Big Problems. Really Big Problems -- and here's four of them, as an example.

1. The Energy Problem -- we need better ways to harness (or release) energy. Oil is a biggie today, but is non-renewable, so not suitable long term, and is a pollutant.
2. The Battery Problem -- even if we find a great way to generate energy, we need a portable way to store it. Oil (i.e. petrol, gas, fuel) does this for us today, but causes other problems (as it's non-renewable, and a pollutant)
3. The Pollution Problem -- Disposable products are very handy and practical, but are in forms that lead to tremendous pollution. (including waste products from energy generation and storage, see above.)
4. Traffic Intersections -- when two roads cross each other's path you can either use a locking mechanism (such as traffic lights/round abouts) which dramatically decreases system throughput, or go into the third dimension, (employ a raised bypass) but this is expensive and requires extra land (something we don't have). Neither solution is decent.

If anyone can demonstrate, on a global scale, a working solution to one of the above problems, I'll give them a free license for TimeSnapper professional.

Sometimes all that the great thinkers need is a little encouragement. Go on sparky. Fire up the grey matter.

I didn't want to make this challenge too easy, so I left off these three other problems:

1. Illness -- people get sick a lot.
2. Weapons -- people and organisations are able to construct or purchase weapons and use them against other people or themselves.
3. Evolution -- All of the cute and friendly animals seem to be nearing extinction while the nasty viruses, bacteria and insects seem to thrive. Stupid Darwin.
4. Bathtub Squeal -- when you release the plug from a full bathtub, it begins to empty but then it makes that horrible squealing sound. Who doesn't hate that sound?

My book "Choose Your First Product" is available now.

It gives you 4 easy steps to find and validate a humble product idea.

Learn more.