Road Eye Contact

If you are in a car and have a desperate urge to look someone in the eye, buses don't produce as high of a yield as one would expect.

A Rare Scene

Its a rare scene watching someone working who is involved in non-customer service white collar work. It seems to me that most people's jobs are non-customer service and this leads to an undervaluation of the their, too rarely noticed, profession.

Society

As we grow up we discover society to be made out of people rather than out of organizations and roles. When you realize this it becomes easier to get what you want done.

Friendship

It is amazing how easily two completely random people can create a friendship.

Dance

To me a dance is any movement that is purposefully not the most efficient.

Questions

You asked a question you wanted a particular response to, then before the person can reply, ask an additional question that has an obvious answer being the same answer you were wanting for the first question.

Second Chances

I always seem to blow my second chances. Third chances I really take advantage of though.

Stories

Everything till now is a story and everything after now is a story.

Sad Thoughts

Why does reminiscing make you sad, even when you are remembering happy things?

Prejudice

I am prejudiced against prejudice

Routine

Time seems to move faster when you have a routine. So make a routine for things you don't enjoy and do the things you enjoy spontaneously.

Big Picture

Big picture ideas are more valuable to society than smaller ones but don't necessarily require more thought power or creativity. I think theoretical physicists take this too far.

Talking

Most of the time I would rather say something that is interesting than something that is true.

Voting Age

One of the reasons that schools were created was to promote democracy and nationalism. If that is the case why is it that the age we act out our most important democratic task, voting, the year after most students have graduated. I think that general voting turnout and consequently political activism would increase if the voting age was lowered to 17.

Effort

I read that effort is a punishing stimulus. This explains a lot.

Speed Reading

Do people read faster with both eyes than with one? It seems like it would be around the same speed. If so I would think that there could be a more efficient method of written communication that requires the use of both eyes more comprehensively.

Learning

I read a while ago that a definition of learning as being able to answer questions to increasingly difficult questions.

Good Parent

A good general rule is to ask your children more questions than they ask of you.

Responsible for Waste

An idea that I had for a science fiction story is a world in which each person is personally responsible for all of the waste that they create. I think it the differences between our society and this fiction would be interesting to come up with. Why can we throw away trash?

Education Voting Trends

One of the most direct indicators of which party a person will vote for is education level. The greater a persons education level the more likely they will vote liberally. As this is somewhat common knowledge in political circles, wouldn't you think that liberals would be more fiercely in favor of increasing opportunity for higher education?

Bored in Class

Whenever I am bored with what is being discussed in class I make comments linking what is currently being discussed with future topics to advance discussion past boring topics.

Asking Question

Whenever I ask a question, before I do so I always try to think of what a possible answer might be. This not only helps me phrase my question more accurately but also prepares me for my response to their response. I feel like not enough people do this or are aware that they should.

Song Lyrics

I think it would be cool to write song lyrics for a duet alternating lines and each person's lines would make sense independently and together but with different meanings.

Obsolete Jokes

I think an interesting stand up routine would be to tell obsolete jokes. For example observational comedy about typewriters. The key would be to make sure that the topic is familiar to the audience but is also well known to be obsolete.

Tax Allocation

I think that the best way to poll people to see what issues they care about would be to make a list of what percent of tax money each service is allocated. People would not only get to see the per person costs of government services, government would be held more accountable for their spending in each area, and the government would be able to see more accurately what fiscal issues the people care about.

Edit: just found this. I would like more detail but it is a good start. http://www.whatwepayfor.com/default.aspx?f=2784

Morning Classes

I think early morning classes should provide free energy drinks for the students who want them. Staying awake during these classes can be difficult for some students and the minimal costs of an energy beverage would be vastly outweighed by the benefit of the knowledge gained by being more awake.

Weight Loss Strategy

I think a good technique for loosing weight would be to have your spouse keep a running list of the food you eat.

Judgement

I respect people who have the ability to be judgmental without being condescending.

Choice

I read this in a textbook on thought manipulation. "If presented a choice between two different gains, the less risk is more often chosen. If presented a choice between two different losses the higher risk is more often chosen."

A New Producer

An interesting way to shoot a movie that I have never seen before would be to film an actual person's life without them knowing. You could add events into their actual lives for additional drama. You would then edit the scenes to coherent movie. Afterwards you could have the person who you film to watch the film, add comments and insight and possibly do voice overs and narrate their thoughts.

A Younger Self

It is interesting to think about how differently you used to think when you were younger. You used to be completely lacking in particular logical abilities. No wonder children need constant looking after and still manage to screw up so much.

Waiting on A Friend

I think that it would be cool to engage in a different activity for every person you wait for. For example, you have a sketchbook and you work on a different sketch when you are waiting for each person you know.

Inspiration

Inspiration is something that you can't force, you can only set up circumstances where you are more likely to become inspired. These circumstances are what you have done/seen/hear/thought and what you are doing right now. Inspiration helps to overcome the punishment of effort.

Gambling

When making a bet you should take into consideration the odds of the other guy cheating through bribery, collusion, or other types of cheating. Subtract the chance from your original odds to find a built in house-edge to any bet you would make

Target Demographics

If you are starting a company that appeals to people who like rap, make the name of your company or product a word that is very easy to rhyme with.

Improving Transportation

I think that if a person were to come up with a way to improve transportation it would make a more significant impact than almost any other area of advancement. Multiply the amount of time saved by the amount of people it would affect, astronomical improvement in world efficiency. As a result we should have more people spending time thinking of ways to improve transportation on a fundamental level, like improving the four-way-stop. I almost want to spend the rest of my life in this pursuit, but it is not a topic I am interested in at all.

Counting Calories

Deciding not to eat something because it has too many calories sound like something lazy people would do. "Oh i would eat this thing that I would really enjoy, but I would have to engage in activity that would burn those calories." You can choose any activity!

Birthday Present

For a friend's birthday, get $20's in one dollar bills, write happy birthday in red sharpie over George Washington's face. sneak into your friend's bedroom and put each dollar into the pockets of 20 different articles of clothing. on the dollar that you place in their ugliest pair of pants, sign your name.

Dining Table

Centerpieces at a dining table can be distracting and block views between people. My idea is for a table with a dropping center so centerpieces can be displayed but be out of the way.

New Purpose for Business

Business models are designed to maximize profits, what if a business was created that was designed to maximize the number of, self sufficient, employees. each employee adds to the company value that is only slightly greater than their salary. It might be a government project to combat unemployment.

New Restaurant

I thought that a cool idea for a restaurant that is just starting out would be to ask homeowners in the area what their favorite dishes to order at a restaurant are and then to have those choices available on the menu. Or the restaurant could ask what are favorite dishes that are too time consuming or difficult to make.

Losing an Argument

Start an argument and then lose on purpose. Would this make the other person happier for “winning” the argument. It seems like even though this is the supposed goal of an argument in my experience it is not the anticipated reaction. Some people will not accept a resignation in an argument. Winning an argument might be the supposed goal but it doesn’t seem to make the winner very happy.

Speeding Tickets

I would like to see the relationship between getting pulled over and given a speeding ticket and reduced driving speeds. Also, if the ticket is what makes the difference or if just being pulled over makes the difference.

Backwards Truck

Backwards truck with the bed in the front.

Backwards Truck

Backwards truck with the bed in the front.

Lawn

I think that grass shouldn't be the only option for a lawn. I would probably choose something that grows more slowly but is still durable/comfortable enough to walk on. There has to be a type of ground cover that is a reasonable alternative to grass.

One Word

I thought an interesting poem would be a poem that describes the depth of one particular word.

Cliches

The more you know, the more you realize what things are cliches. This allows fr you to be able to use them more responsibly and express yourself more exactly.

Cleaning Clothes

Clothes or bed sheets that clean you while you use them.

Physical Attraction

I think that physical attractiveness can be broken into 4 categories. Genetics, fashion, hygiene, and fitness. Genetics is the only one that you can't do anything about. Some people are just born with unattractive genes but you can hopefully compensate with the other three. Good fashion can improve your physical attractiveness just by spending money. If you don't have large amounts of money to spend on clothes that are almost guaranteed to make you look good, you will have to develop an eye, but with practice this is not too difficult. Hygiene is an element that should be done anyways just for health, but it can also improve attractiveness. Lastly, fitness is also important for health, but it is also can be the most important of the four elements.