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Concept Contraception

Pay entrepreneurs to *not* develop their ideas - save on expensive failures.
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Right now a lot of entrepreneurs are having a lot of big ideas.

Unfortunately for the economy the vast majority of these will fail expensively within a matter of months. The cost of a failed idea can be vast, many times more than the original cost to bring the idea into fruition.

This scares off investors and is a burden on the economy.

It seems that dotcom companies have suffered from bad ideas more than any other industry, and now, even if you have a great idea for an internet company – no sane investor will touch it and venture capitalists laugh hard in your face.

If only there was a way to prevent these silly ideas from developing beyond the harmless idea phase…

Maybe there is a way!

I propose that entrepreneurs be paid to *not* develop their harebrained ideas to fruition.

This is Concept Contraception!

Effectively, entrepreneurs will be subsidised to leave ideas ‘fallow’ rather than to pursue them to their ultimately expensive failure.

Imagine how much healthier the internet sector would be if we had been able to prevent disasters like Boo.com, Dr.Koop, the laughable Basooka.com and other spectacular examples of ideas that have become embarrassingly real.

The wisdom behind contraception has long been recognised by family planning professionals. So, sure, go ahead - think all you like! But don’t take that dumb idea any further.

Vote for Concept Contraception! Investors could finally be confident that they are not flushing their hard earned money down so many ill-conceived toilets.

Nadia, Aug 29 2001

Concept Contraception @ sharesite http://www.sharesite.org/article/57.html
This is the correct URL - Sharesite is a financial news parody web-site. [salimf, Aug 29 2001, last modified Oct 05 2004]

[link]






       How much will you pay me not to develop genetically-engineered exploding custard-powered time-travelling perpetual-motion nanobots?
angel, Aug 29 2001
  

       Well that depends - how much money would you waste by persuing the project? Where's your cost analisys?
Nadia, Aug 29 2001
  

       Actually, though this may be against the spirit of the 1/2bakery, the ONLY way to know if an idea is good is to try it.   

       For example, the IBM PC, when first upon the market, was laughed at.   

       Discussion with others about your ideas is a good thing, but there's always a chance that EVERYBODY will get it wrong.   

       Any idea, regardless of how wonderful or ridiculous it seems "on paper," may sink or float due to completely non-rational factors.   

       As far as investors losing money, and thereby losing "faith" - too fucking bad. Chance for huge loss and huge risk is just part of the game of "throw it on the water and see if it floats." If you don't like it, don't play.   

       Fishbone.
quarterbaker, Aug 29 2001
  

       [angel] Not to mention the Schrodingers' extension you were contemplating for those nanobots...
-alx, Aug 29 2001
  

       [psst...nadia] Personal plugs/links should be posted on your "user" page.
iuvare, Aug 29 2001
  

       qb, Nadia's idea is more clearly satirical in the ShareSite presentation.
beauxeault, Aug 29 2001
  

       An even better (and cheaper) idea would be to catch these idea people before they start planning their dot-bombs, and introduce them to the HalfBakery...or was that the plan all along?
nick_n_uit, Aug 29 2001
  

       Worse still is the acquisition of a long standing company by an upstart which crashes.
thumbwax, Aug 29 2001
  

       angel - If I'd been drinking milk wihle I was reading your annotation, it would've come out my nose. Thanks!
snarfyguy, Aug 29 2001
  

       I worked for much of the last three years in .com venture finance. I must say that these entrepreneurs are dangerous - they unwittingly persuade gullible investors to pump money into their floundering schemes!   

       Entrepreneurs can be a real menace - if we could have found a friendly way to not develop many of the ideas we see today then our nation would be in a far healthier state.
salimf, Aug 29 2001
  

       <ahem>planet</ahem>
thumbwax, Aug 30 2001
  

       How does billions of tons of rock, metal and magma get sick? Ohh...you mean CULTURE, not 'planet'...<grin>
StarChaser, Aug 30 2001
  

       The reason you are met with such dissention to your idea is because IT. IS. HALF. BAKED.   

       ANY efforts to stall, insubordinate, undermine, disregard (are you getting the picture yet?!) the creative, research and development process will result in no good.   

       It is because we don't kaibash everything thing we don't think is useful to us at the time, why we have telephones, tv's, cars, electric kettles, lightbulbs, air and space travel, post-it notes, 1GHz dual processors, ballpoint pens, alternates to fossil fuels (are you getting the picture yet?!)…   

       The dot com / dot bomb problem isn't usually the ideas. It's the planning and execution where these folks tend to be revolving door failures. Sort of like your execution of the idea that there must be a way to save (or not spend so much) on other peoples half baked ideas. the kernel was there, Nadia, but it didn't pop. You need to think this one through.   

       P.S. Thank goodness there are entrepreneurs out there (can you tell I'm one, yet?!) who aren't discouraged by the rantings of the lazy and the unispired -- Edison, DaGama (sp.?) Einstien, Franklin, DaVinci, Tesla, Jobs, Gates, Trump...
NeMo, Mar 06 2004
  
      
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