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Conclusions and Afterthoughts (3rd edition)
“There are two motives for reading a book: one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it.” Bertrand Russell
In view of the fact that I am an unknown author, I hope you enjoyed the book, since you will have a very slim chance of boasting about reading the works of a novice like me. I had a lot of reactions from people who read early drafts and releases of my book. My idea about the space elevator (Chapter 1) was well received on the whole, but some readers wondered if I was trivializing the engineering challenge by ignoring such factors as high winds at high altitudes, dangers to air traffic from a structure up that high, lack of oxygen when you go high enough and other factors.
I did consider these factors, but my main focus was on the cable length because that is often cited as the limiting engineering factor. My point was that you don’t have to constrain yourself this way. It doesn’t mean the other challenges go away, but at least you tackle the primary one. In my view, there are solutions to the other challenges that will arise.
My ideas regarding thermostat control and tax incentives (Chapter 2), lead to some amusing reactions- the chief one being a lot of people promised they wouldn’t show up at my house any time soon. The overall reaction was positive, but there were some notable exceptions, with one my friends calling it one of my dumber thoughts.
Modular cars that can save gas (Chapter 3) provoked a lot of interest. Quite a few folks questioned the engineering feasibility of this notion. However, most agreed with the merit of the idea. I still have not heard any definitive argument from someone intimately familiar with automotive engineering. I’m still exploring this idea with some mechanics.
The outfitting of cars with two gas tanks (Chapter 4) went over well. It was universally popular and no one really saw any problem with paying a little extra for this privilege. Tracking luggage using modern technology was equally popular (Chapter 5). Several people suggeste`d that avoiding the aggravation of luggage problems was worth paying a few extra dollars.
Chapter 6 on chess was the most popular idea in the book. I expanded on the details of my ideas for new versions of chess in a revised version of the book and added a couple of appendices outlining rules for TrimChess (the 6x8 version) and rules for StrongChess (the 10x8 version). I also added a complete sample game for StrongChess and schematics for the three in one board.
Chapter 7 about changes to the game of hockey, really did not go over well with hockey fans. I also got reamed by one critic for referring to hockey as ‘ice hockey’. Canadians take their hockey seriously – and none that I heard from cared for my idea.
Cat litter smell elimination with Bilko doors was extraordinarily popular. I was expecting some ribbing for this idea, but on the contrary, it seemed to be quite a hit. Every cat owner I heard from was quite enthusiastic about this conception (Chapter 8). Eliminating our collective debt burden (Chapter 9) through an automatic principle payment scheme was a hit. Many wondered why such a system was not already in place. There was a lot of cynicism about our government ever taking any action like this. There were some skeptics who felt I was oversimplifying matters, but a vast majority felt that the debt needed to be addressed by any means necessary.
Chapter 10 on treating food cravings as addictions and eliminating key components had mixed reactions. I stated fairly clearly in the chapter that I only expected this to work for a subset of people. Quite a few wondered if I was able to maintain the diet or did I abandon it out of boredom. I can assure the readers that I am sustaining the diet even now (approximately 6 months). I view myself as a reformed addict- I have no real cravings and I control what food I eat. The only problem I have is that I am unable on a consistent basis to restrict my calories daily. But the food I eat is all healthy and I feel 100% better.
There are a lot of Star Trek fans out there and I heard a lot of positive reactions to the reflections I presented in Chapter 11. As the pool of readers increases there may be mixed reactions. The notion of having a villian who is not just hopelessly evil seemed to strike some resonance with the readers. It confirms my belief that Star Trek fans are generally a kinder, gentler bunch. The totally redundant laptop presented in Chapter 12 left some people wondering if there was already a design like this in the works. There may be, but I have not seen it. Depending on how this is done, it might be twice as wide as a mini laptop, or twice as thick as a regular laptop.
My fanciful thoughts on space exploration (Chapter 13) were viewed as a very practical method of getting our population interested in NASA again. The only concerns I heard here were that I might have been assuming too much in terms of existing or near term technology capabilities.
The speculation presented in Chapter 14 for the stock market was received with quite a bit of skepticism. It turns out there is a surprisingly simple way of testing this out. Pick a good stock (one with a decent P/E ratio and EPS) and download historical quote data. This can be done from any decent finance web site nowadays. Download it into Excel and use the Excel built in functions for extrapolation. If you can’t get a decent extrapolation, you can ignore this stock and move to a different one. I tried this on about 2 dozen stocks, and found you can get a simple linear extrapolation for a vast majority of them. Take a look at the projected extrapolated value for 5 years from now. That value is the value predicted by your trend line. If the stock is below the trend line, buy as much as you can. As soon as it rises above the trend line, sell. Don’t get greedy and wait for a peak in the other direction above the trend line. I’m certain even this simple technique will get you some terrific gains. I’m testing this out by putting my money where my mouth is. I have a significant investment in a couple of stocks using this technique.
A lot of IT workers appreciated the views in Chapter 15. I suspect a very bright one will be producing a program shortly to do this, although it would certainly take some courage to author a program like this and face all your managers the next day. Other comments on this chapter were that these types of programs would have wide applicability in a number of fields, not just IT. I guess obnoxious managers are commonplace in quite a few industries. The hikers sled in Chapter 16 was viewed as a common sense idea. Many expressed surprise something of that nature was not already on the market. I found no evidence that there was anything like this on the market.
My thoughts on dishwashers with mobile racks were met enthusiastically. Some wondered about the extra power consumption involved for tasks like this. I did not necessarily have a powered approach in mind for raising the lower rack. A hand crank could be involved, for example.
Keep all the great feedback coming. All ideas are welcome!