gigantes
11-25-2015, 05:23 PM
this is a pretty cool series (http://cavemancircus.com/2015/11/25/10-answers-to-questions-you-always-wondered-about-40/). every week or so a set of the best Q's and A's are collected from reddit and published on caveman-circus. here's an interesting one from this week:
[quote]http://i.imgur.com/NiBkPRi.jpg
Why, nearly everyday, on the news theres a story detailing a groundbreaking medical discovery (i.e scientists discover cure for AIDS), but then I never hear about it elsewhere?
Billy has always been a fan of baseball. One day, he discovers a strange lightweight metal rod that he believes would make a great baseball bat. He begs his parents to get some money so he can get some grip and other materials to turn the metal bar into a bat. His parents, convinced that this is a decent idea that will keep Billy distracted, agree.
Now Billy has a prototype bat with the metal that he found. He tests the bat against other bats and shows all his friends that it performs much better. The local baseball coach sees Billy using the bat and wonders if it can be sold as a commercial product.
But now, any number of issues could prevent the bat from commercial success:
Possible effects on people: The metal Billy found may actually be harmful to humans with long exposure despite the nice performance properties.
Sourcing: Maybe the metal was a scrap piece of extremely expensive metal. It would cost too much to get this metal and make them into affordable metal bats.
Manufacturing costs: Billy may have been a fanatic at handcrafting his bat but trying to make them on a large scale would cost too much money per bat.
Reliability: Billy may not have used the bat long enough to realize that the metal becomes brittle after a few uses which can cause the bat to perform worse over time or even break.
Regulations: The little leagues may ban the bat because it is too different (in terms of weight, size, etc.) compared to the standard bats.
Company buyout: Another company may purchase their bat invention in order to stop it from being manufactured. This prevents it from going on the market so there is no additional competition that would force companies to lower prices.
Management problems: Having a startup to sell the bat means hiring additional people in addition to just Billy and the coach. It
[quote]http://i.imgur.com/NiBkPRi.jpg
Why, nearly everyday, on the news theres a story detailing a groundbreaking medical discovery (i.e scientists discover cure for AIDS), but then I never hear about it elsewhere?
Billy has always been a fan of baseball. One day, he discovers a strange lightweight metal rod that he believes would make a great baseball bat. He begs his parents to get some money so he can get some grip and other materials to turn the metal bar into a bat. His parents, convinced that this is a decent idea that will keep Billy distracted, agree.
Now Billy has a prototype bat with the metal that he found. He tests the bat against other bats and shows all his friends that it performs much better. The local baseball coach sees Billy using the bat and wonders if it can be sold as a commercial product.
But now, any number of issues could prevent the bat from commercial success:
Possible effects on people: The metal Billy found may actually be harmful to humans with long exposure despite the nice performance properties.
Sourcing: Maybe the metal was a scrap piece of extremely expensive metal. It would cost too much to get this metal and make them into affordable metal bats.
Manufacturing costs: Billy may have been a fanatic at handcrafting his bat but trying to make them on a large scale would cost too much money per bat.
Reliability: Billy may not have used the bat long enough to realize that the metal becomes brittle after a few uses which can cause the bat to perform worse over time or even break.
Regulations: The little leagues may ban the bat because it is too different (in terms of weight, size, etc.) compared to the standard bats.
Company buyout: Another company may purchase their bat invention in order to stop it from being manufactured. This prevents it from going on the market so there is no additional competition that would force companies to lower prices.
Management problems: Having a startup to sell the bat means hiring additional people in addition to just Billy and the coach. It