Side effect solutions
From InfoCamp
The side effect solutions
by JT
Also below are the slide-by-slide notes that I typed out for when I was rehearsing. (I'm sure there are typos.)
- 1 **
Today I'm going to talk about the side effect solutions. What does that mean?
- 2 **
Before I get into it I want to do a quick survey... ...on online dating.
- How many of you use online dating at least once per month? - How many of those people go on at least one date per month? - How many of you got married as the result of online dating? - How many of you think online dating is lame? - How many of you think the people who uses online dating are desperate? - If you use online dating, and for those who don't, imagine you do, how many of you would feel hesitant to tell others that you use online dating? - Now I'm going to ask you a question from a completely different angle. If you were to meet an attractive stranger in real life, like on the street or in the subway, how many of you would break the ice by saying, "hey, I'm single. What about you?"
Of course, this group of people here are not a good data sample. But we all know that online dating does not work as good as it could have been, that's because...
- 3 **
The problem with dating sites is... ...they are called dating sites.
This may sound ridiculous at first. But let's go back to our last question. You meet someone in the real world. You don't just tell them you are single or looking, or how much fun you are, or how much you care about your family, or how good you are at listening. Why?
Because that's desperate.
Why should online dating be different?
But the way most of the online dating sites are set up now.
- 4 **
They are exactly the opposite of how meeting people is off-line.
As soon as you become a dating site user, you have made more effort than other people to look for partners, and that makes you more likely to be viewed as desperate.
And in the back of people's mind, online dates will always be second to meeting someone in the real world by chance.
Anyway, I'm not saying online dating won't work at all. In fact, the industry has a 10% annual growth. Of course, that doesn't really mean it works either. Let's not even get into the fact that there's a huge intrinsic conflict of interests, because dating sites often make the most money when their users are perpetually single, hopeful but never happily ever after.
- 5 **
Anyway, let's go back to the main point of this talk, which is...
There's a special type of problems where the direct solutions may not be the most effective solutions.
I call this type of problem, "the itch problem", because the more you scratch it, the worse it gets.
This is why sometimes it's necessary to look for a...
- 6 **
... side effect solutions
- 7 **
Here are some other examples the itch problems and their side effect solutions.
- 8 **
Networking
You want to build up some trusty connections for whatever reason. What do you do? You go to a "networking" event.
But what's the biggest problem with networking events? They are full of douche bags. All they care about is expanding their network, not collaborating to build something bigger. They are so desperate, which is why they go to every single networking events.
How can we solve this problem with a side effect solution?
Just go to events with some other purposes. If you are into solar technology, go to solar technology events. If you are a web developer, go to web developer events.
You get better people because usually the attendees care about something else.
And people will network themselves.
- 9 **
Dating
This is very similar to networking.
- 10 **
Advertising
Google does the best. Searching is the primary activity. Advertising is a side effect, but still relevant to the search.
- 11 **
Welfare
What do I mean by opportunities?
Better education, better public transit, free high-speed internet access.
- 12 **
Hiring
- 13 **
There are many more examples.
At this point, you may say, "JT, these examples are all great. But my problem has nothing to do with these."
- 14 **
How do I find side effect solutions?
Unfortunately, there's no magical formula that applies to every domain.
- 15 **
But there are general strategies that you can use.
First and the most obvious one is...
recognize the itch, recognize that direct solutions are not effective for your problem.
- 16 **
Now this is easy to do, when the direct solution is not working at all.
But it's much harder when you have a direct solution that works ok. Because then your mentality is, "well I attack the problem head on and it works, so there cannot be better solutions."
- 17 **
Step 2: Brainstorm for side-effect solutions
- 18 **
First thing, look for situations where your problem doesn't even show up. Figure out why. I can not stress this more. When you have a problem, people's first instinct is to find other who also try to solve the problem and see how they do it.
That's great. But you should really start with where the problem is not even an issue. It never ever surfaces.
Next, find related problems, parallel problems, figure out how to solve them, and see if that will solve your problem indirectly.
Next, if your problem is complicated, it helps to exaggerate it, put it in a much bigger or smaller scope. If I'm trying to figure out how 2000 people interact. Examine how 2 people or 2 million people interact. Figure out what's different what's the same, and then isolate the variables that make things work or not work.
Or sometimes you just have to look into something that's completely unrelated to your problem. That may not make sense at first, but you will get better at it with practice.
And yes, brainstorming can be trained. That's a whole different talk all.
- 19 **
Step 3: Apply, rinse and repeat
You all know what that mean.
- 20 **
The last thing I want to talk about is "game with a purpose"
What is game with a purpose. Why don't we just go to their website.
- 21 **
That's it.
My name is JT. I'm a web developer and entrepreneur.
I will upload the slide onto my website simplyjt.com
You can also find my email there. Thank you for your attention.
Questions?
Let's brainstorm!
