A while back, I read an article about how most of the billions invested in crypto ICOs, over the last few years, simply disappeared, along with their creators. I'd like to know how this is different, but the article is behind a paywall.
The white paper is something that I could deliver soon, and it will have the value of containing my unique ideas for the issues and topics covered by GAGOOT.
For most people who aren't independently wealthy, it takes steady income to keep a life going. So how would ideas about a side project help you do that? What makes you think ideas are worth money? Is there anyone else you know who has sold similar ideas in this manner? Are you a famous physicist or politician? I'm asking hard questions not out of meanness but out of genuine concern to get to a more stable track forward.
If one has under-treated conditions like OCD or manic depression, I've seen people with unhealthy fixations on ideas be their own worst enemies and sabotage their life situations. People who lived in vans but failed to get medication and floated in the in-between and on the margins. I've been there. There's no reward for misery and it's difficult to climb out of it. Wash windows, sell t-shirt, mow lawns.. all things that can be done with minimum of resources for immediate cash. Go on craigslist and offer technical services for an hourly rate.
It's not enough to want. One has to sustain themselves, be relentlessly resourceful, do and build something people need, and collect money in one stable way before changing to another. Stability first. It's like an investment portfolio: you wouldn't throw your parent's life savings into a random NFT. Maybe $5 as a test, but that's it.
Ideas are worth money. For example, corporations buy patents for things that don't yet exist (or may never exist) simply to shore up their IP portfolios. What I'm attempting here is a different business model, one which does not have to become accepted practice for every startup.
As I remark above... ideas aren't worth money, only results are.
Sell those domain names if you can... be aware that they're probably not worth much because their value is also tied to your idea... which doesn't have value until it's made real.
I'm being brutally honest here in an attempt to help. Bite the bullet and get a day job, pursue your project weekends and evenings even if that seems a painful way forward. All you have to do is produce working results and then you can sell the idea, quit your job, and go full time. If you're good enough to create your idea, you're good enough to sleep walk your way through a boring job that pays your bills and quickly put together working proof of your idea that you can use to obtain financing.
Ideas are worth money. For example, corporations buy patents for things that don't yet exist (or may never exist) simply to shore up their IP portfolios. What I'm attempting here is a different business model, one which does not have to become accepted practice for every startup.
This repost is to update my situation. My "imminent" homelessness has become "actual", as I am now living in a homeless shelter in Philadelphia, PA. I merely exist here, as it is difficult to get any useful computer work done. I feel as if I am slipping further, potentially soon reaching the point of no return. I hereby reiterate my above call for assistance, to get myself back to some semblance of normalcy, so that I might be able to make progress on GAGOOT.
To that end, I am offering to produce a detailed white paper, to be delivered in four weeks, to any investor (or group of investors) who is/are willing to make an upfront token payment of $5,000. After delivery, the paper will remain private, for a short while, maybe a week or two, to give the investor(s) a time advantage to decide whether they are interested in making a real investment. If not, then I will publish it, so I can use it as a basis for some other funding approach for GAGOOT.
I realize that this proposition is unusual, but I find myself in an unusual situation, and so I am brainstorming unusual solutions. Also, if you are in or near my city, I am willing to meet in person. Thank you for your consideration.
By the way, speaking of "brainstorming", I am reminded of 1983's "Brainstorm". Here is a fascinating article about the film.
Don't know much about your project, but it seems a long way off from producing income, if ever.
I see others have tried to help in the past with little luck, but I'll take a stab at it too, just in case: I'd focus on getting some income of any sort coming in, even of the informal employment variety. Also, go to your local social services office and apply for things like EBT. Once you have a few 100 dollars (which you might even be able to get by panhandling for a few days), go find a room for rent. If you're not picky, you can get one for $100/wk or probably even lower if you look around. Then look for more sustainable income sources. Once that's all sorted out, only then start thinking about your side project.
Yeah. It feels uncomfortable to give advice like this but:
Abandon this project immediately. Use whatever personal resource (time, energy, motivation) you’ve got left to find any sort of technical/intellectual work that leverages your most valuable skills before it’s too late.
> “I merely exist here, as it is difficult to get any useful computer work done.”
Eventually you will find it impossible to do anything with those most valuable skills.
I saw too many people come to Silicon Valley like would-be miners in the Gold Rush, didn't want to understand how to find gold, and all they had to do was get a designer, a software developer, put out a press release, or have beautiful ideas.
The people who made it listened, observed real problems, and crafted something obviously useful and better to fill a specific category of need, most often while working another job to pay the bills.
Survive, thrive, and then work on side-projects. Side projects are too risky to become an immediate living when you need water, food, and shelter.
Honestly, I avoided shelters because of the lack of safety and risk of diseases like TB, c. auris, meningitis, bed bugs, and such. Yuck. I'd rather find somewhere quiet hidden away.
Just checked and there's at least several on Craigslist at that price right now in his area. He could also move to a different area for even greater savings.
I have to echo the advice I’ve seen here, which is that you need a job — any job! — to get you back to a semi-stable living situation in the short term.
I’ve built a business on open source — it was very difficult, and the outcome far from immediate. There’s absolutely no way I could have done it while homeless and living in a shelter.
How do I pay for a $50 newsletter subscription? Only way to send money I can see on https://gagoot.com/ is a Monero address. Is there any source code or diagrams associated with this project?
Thank you for the reply. However, I find it rather harsh coming from someone who made a documentary film about homeless people [https://graceofgodmovie.com]. I guess you didn't get your "happy ending", because you remain "puzzled". I'm somewhat like the psychologist, from your film, who had a practice, and now can't get a job at Burger King, but not for lack of trying. I've had bad luck and I've made mistakes. I've trying to overcome both, so that I don't end up in a ditch of despair and finality.
How much due diligence do you perform on the decrepit man sitting on the sidewalk, holding out a cup of change, before you decide to throw some his way? I'm not looking for traditional funding from Silicon Valley, as should be obvious if you read about my idea of constructing a non-corporate board to manage GAGOOT, so that it could have a life of its own when I'm gone. Even one hundred people giving me $90 each would fix my immediate situation, so that I could at least have a clear head to determine (and take) the next step for funding GAGOOT.
Preferring anonymity is not a crime, nor should it be a handicap. Plenty of people get funding for projects without filling out extensive applications and passing background checks. I did state that I would provide my legal name and banking info, via return email, for anyone who wished to donate, as they would obviously not be able to get the money to me otherwise. I just don't want that information plastered all over the Internet.
Since that first post, which received no replies, and in which I clearly indicated that I would be happy to answer questions about GAGOOT, I've spent most of my time and energy staying alive. Every day, seven days each week, I get up with the intention of doing that, as well as with the intention of making progress on GAGOOT. Most days, I start off feeling as if I could do both, but I usually end up accomplishing the minimum on the former, and practically nothing on the latter, because the former has become harder and harder.
Anyway, I have made some progress on GAGOOT, with research and code, but I don't have the time and energy to write white papers, and I don't use things like GitHub to publish my code, which is currently closed source, due to incompleteness and, sad to say, due to some sloppiness and inconsistencies, as my GAGOOT-related coding sessions are usually limited to the minimum of putting down ideas instead of making them pretty. If I had the little bit of financial support that I requested, I could (and would) produce polished public output.
> How much due diligence do you perform on the decrepit man sitting on the sidewalk, holding out a cup of change, before you decide to throw some his way?
People on the sidewalk are typically not soliciting fifty to five thousand dollars. And if I meet someone on the sidewalk I can see their face and have a conversation with them which helps me assess whether or not they are trying to scam me.
> I'm somewhat like the psychologist, from your film, who had a practice, and now can't get a job at Burger King, but not for lack of trying.
The psychologist's name is (or was -- he died recently) Michael. And it's pretty clear that you haven't actually seen the film because if you had you would know that Michael was very much the author of his own fate.
> Preferring anonymity is not a crime, nor should it be a handicap.
It's not a crime, but it's not an entitlement either. Anonymity has a price.
> that first post ... received no replies
And did you stop to consider why it got no replies? And what you might do differently to change that?
> If I had the little bit of financial support that I requested, I could (and would) produce polished public output.
I sincerely wish you the best of luck. But if you fail to get the "little bit of financial support that you requested", you might want to consider the possibility that this is the result of choices you have made, and if you make different choices you might get different outcomes.
"People on the sidewalk are typically not soliciting fifty to five thousand dollars."
People on the sidewalk aren't offering you anything in return, either, as I am. I believe that GAGOOT could be a big project in the long term, and be influential in a real way.
"And if I meet someone on the sidewalk I can see their face and have a conversation with them which helps me assess whether or not they are trying to scam me."
I am open to video calls through Zoom or Skype, but no one has bothered to ask. Also, I am willing to provide evidence of my situation. Lastly, if this was a scam, then it must be a long con, given that it began with a post half a year ago.
> People on the sidewalk aren't offering you anything in return, either
That's not true. Offering entertainment on the sidewalk is very common, so common in fact that there's even a word for it: busking.
> I believe that GAGOOT could be a big project in the long term, and be influential in a real way.
The operative word there being "could". The internet is chock-full of people who think that their idea "could" be the Next Big Thing. The vast majority of them are wrong, so my Bayesian prior on anyone who says they have the Next Big Thing is very close to zero, and I see absolutely nothing here that would move the needle on that. I don't even have any evidence that you can write code.
> I am open to video calls through Zoom or Skype, but no one has bothered to ask.
And have you bothered to ask yourself why that is? And in particular, if there is anything you have done that may have contributed to this outcome, and which you could change in order to improve your odds?
> if this was a scam, then it must be a long con
Yes. So? Long cons happen. c.f. Theranos.
And even non-scams can be bad bets. (In fact, the vast majority are.)
BTW, are you familiar with urbit? Its marketing rhetoric is very similar to yours. And many people think that urbit is a scam, including me.
BTW2, Anonymity is not necessarily a show-stopper. Bitcoin is an existence proof. You might want to study its history, think about what made it succeed, and use that as a model.
I found it, long ago, when researching whether there was anything like GAGOOT, but I dismissed it as being too complex, and therefore, neither a good substitute for, nor a viable competitor to, GAGOOT. However, much later, I came across a well-written article about it, which I shared in the following link.
EDIT: In case FSE disappears from the Internet, here is my comment and the excellent article.
Here's an interesting recent article about Urbit. Some of the similarities to (and differences from) GAGOOT are quite striking. I wish I had the resources (time, energy, focus, competence, and so on) to neatly rewrite this from a GAGOOT perspective. I think that I need to find a good writer, with whom I can have long conversations, so that they can then understand enough about GAGOOT to write such nifty articles to explain it to people.
