Jay Yarow went through a Quora discussion to identify certain trends in the failures of start-ups. He listed ten start-up ideas that never work, although he did point out that they don’t work – until they do. They include:

• Search – companies have tried and failed to compete with Google and Bing. It’s not happening.
• Hyper-Local news. Such start-ups aim to produce news stories that are relevant to you and your neighborhood. AOL is the latest entrant in the arena. It never works – the market isn’t big enough.
• An email competitor. Google tried and failed with Wave – a product that they said would change email forever and would displace it. Google was wrong.
• A better car company. Several companies have tried and failed to enter the car-market. You could point to Tesla as a successful example but the company in its 9 years has sold fewer than 2,000 cars.
• Kids. Several companies think there’s a huge opportunity in making things related to kids. But the market isn’t big enough – there are only 4 million new kids in the US a year, and Toy’ R Us, Walmart and Target dominate it.

To read more examples of ideas that just won’t work including social recommendations, micropayments, and music startups among others, click here.

Source: Business Insider

Via: Newmark’s Door

In an impassioned plea against chairs, Colin McSwiggen’s shows that evidence suggests that sitting on chairs for extended uninterrupted periods can significantly raise the risk of death – even for those who exercise a lot. So why did the chair become so common? His history of the chair explains:

• Chairs “are about status, power and control.”
• Chairs find their origins in the Stone Age, up to 12,000 years ago, when those in the upper classes of society sat on thrones – a small raised platform.
• They were better than benches because they could only seat one person – signifying their status.
• Most other people would either sit on the ground or squatted. They would lean against the odd barrel every so often.
• In the Middle Ages common people didn’t keep cumbersome chairs, because they moved around a lot to keep from getting sacked.
• Rich families might have a single chair for the head of the household – but it would be heavy so that it couldn’t be stolen.
• Chairs didn’t become popular until the industrial revolution, when mass production made them cheap and people could afford to emulate the rich.
• Moreover the industrial revolution led to a more sedentiary office-based lifestyle where you’re required to sit for long periods.
• Chairs in schoolrooms are a tool for teachers to control the movements of students. By the time children become adults they’ve lost the ability to sit, unless it’s on a chair.

To read many more fascinating details, why a good chair doesn’t exist, why ergonomics is a waste of time, how our entire society is designed around chairs, making them inescapable, why chairs are like parasites, and what you should do after you read the full article, click here.

Source: Jacobin

Via: Marginal Revolution

Shekhar Bhatia reports on the latest industry to be outsourced from England to India: Child Birth.

• Couples and singles pay up to £25,000 to have children through surrogate mothers in India.
• Estimates suggests that 2,000 such births happened in 2011.
• The entire industry is estimated by Indian authorities to be worth £1.5 billion each year and is growing rapidly.
• The clinics are unregulated and the legality of the practice is questionable.

To read more about why people are opting to go down this path, the regulations that are being proposed, why trying to get British citizenship is difficult, and the “womb to rent” culture that may spring up, click here.

Source: The Telegraph

Via: Marginal Revolution

Harvard is trying out a program in its business school that is a departure from its usual case study discussions reports John A. Byrne. Highlights of his article include:

• Harvard offered its incoming class of 900 MBA students $3,000 in seed capital to brainstorm business ideas.
• Students then had to develop their ideas and pitch it to other students. A stock exchange was set up where students were given $100,000 of virtual money to invest in the ideas that they thought had potential.
• Teams were then given an opportunity to refine their ideas, and the market was opened up again.
• Those ideas that were received well by this virtual market were then actual projects that the teams pursued.
• One idea had so much potential that the team was able to attract outside investors.
• Some of the ideas include a company that sells premium undergarments for men, and an application that allows Jewish mothers to set their children up for dates.

To read more about what happens to the failed business ideas, why Harvard doesn’t want the next Facebook to come out of this, how much the program costs the school, some of the other ideas that were successful, and how one student was able to make $2.4 million of virtual money click here.

Source: CNN

Via: Newmark’s Door

The World Geography created “a list of countries that are not like other countries.” Some of the highlights include:

• Canada has more than 60% of the world’s lakes. In fact, it has so many that the exact number has never been counted.
• The country of Indonesia is made up of over 17,500 islands. Only 6,000 are inhabited.
• 99% of Libya is a desert – more than any other country in the world.
• Mongolia has the lowest population density with just 4.4 people per square mile.
• Ukraine is the fastest disappearing country – its population is decreasing by 0.8% a year, and between now and 2050 it is expected to lose 28% of its population.

To read many more, and to find out which country has 15% of the world’s coral reefs, which country is in the jungle, the country that is below sea level, the only country-continent in the world, and the country that only gets around a thousand visitors a year, click here.

Source: The World Geography

Via: Newmark’s Door

High Point University has engaged in a daring new initiative to attract students by resembling a theme park and a corporate campus writes Carol Matlack. Highlights of the article include:

• Nido Qubein has led an attempted turnaround of High Point University by leveraging the university’s assets to invest in new infrastructure and thus hopefully buy credibility.
• Less than 10% of the universities in the United States are considered ‘medallion’ institutions. Qubein is not the first to try and buy his way into the club.
• However his method is unique. Rather than using the $700 million to attract top academic talent, Qubein is spending money to add luxuries to the campus in a bid to attract rich students – who can then pay for the luxury amenities.
• Features include schools with marble floors, first-run movie theaters, dorms with plasma-screen televisions and hot tubs.
• Qubein plans a total of $2.1 billion in campus improvements by 2020.
• The university that has now acquired a preppy image offers classes in dressing for job interviews and writing business letters.
• The campus is trying to discourage students from living off-campus by buying all of the off-campus apartments.
• High Point University’s annual operating budget is $77 million but it is estimated to add $418 million every year to the sleepy mill town in which it is located.
• The University has added new majors such as International Relations.
• To attract students High Point University offers scholarships – but only if students and parents visit the university first. The hope is that visitors will be so impressed that they’ll choose to go even if they don’t win the scholarships.

To read about the somewhat suspicious links between High Point University, and Qubein’s own business interests, how his salary has increased, what a tuition at the university looks like, why the success of the university might have come at the expense of black students, how academic standards may have slipped, why piercings and tattoos are discouraged, how flyers are banned, and why Qubein compares his students to Godiva chocolates, click here.

Edit: To read a rebuttal of some of these points please scroll down to the comments below.

Source: BusinessWeek

Via: Marginal Revolution

In his forthcoming book: Unintended Consequences: Why Everything You’ve Been Told About the Economy Is Wrong Edward Conard makes the provocative argument that income inequality is actually a good thing. It’s a book that will likely spark a fair amount of debate as the election season draws near. Adam Davidson had the opportunity to sit with him and discuss his argument. Highlights include:

• Income inequality is a sign of a healthy, functioning economy.
• The super-rich spend only a small proportion of their income on personal comforts. The majority of their money goes into investments.
• Estimates suggest that for every dollar invested, society gains $5, although Conad believes that the ratio is closer to $20:$1.
• Computers, for example, have made their inventors and innovators extremely rich. But they have also greatly benefitted society. Similar stories can be told about a wide range of industries including agriculture.
• Therefore income inequality actually benefits the middle class. If there was even greater income inequality then even more people would be investing and society would come out on top as a whole.

To read a comprehensive criticism of the argument, why this might become the most hated book of the year, what Conrad thinks about Art History majors, why he doesn’t like lawyers, Conrad’s mathematics inspired dating advice, why he thinks that Warren Buffet is stealing from the middle class, and what this all means for the 2012 elections, click here.

Source: New York Times

Via: Marginal Revolution