Greek Complexity

Learning grammar by sound

Only babies can do this. Tangential point: it now makes sense to me why speakers of Indian languages say that Japanese grammar is easy for them to pick up. I do hear this more often from Indians than from native English speakers.

Pitch perfect: http://www.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2013/02/bilingualism

Electricity from thin air

An elegant innovation:

A student at the University of the Arts in Bremen has built what he calls an electromagnetic harvester—it converts electromagnetic fields in the immediate environment into electricity to recharge a common AA battery.

More here.

Now let's see it scaled up.

VimpelCom deal with MS and Nokia

The FT reports:

VimpelCom, the global telecoms operator, has signed an agreement with Microsoft and Nokia that will allow its customers to use their mobile accounts to buy applications and content on the Windows Phone platform.

Under the agreement, VimpelCom customers will be able to use their mobile accounts to find, try and buy digital content from the Windows store. The cost of any applications, games or music purchased will be deducted from pre-pay customers’ phone credits, or added to subscribers’ monthly bills.

VimpelCom will create its own virtual “shelf” to help customers find digital content in the Windows store, some of which will be tailored to local services.

I wonder what form this “shelf” will take. If it’s yet another operator attempt at a walled garden, it’s doomed to be dead on arrival. But if the parties involved are smart about it -- a very big IF -- it could turn into quite a useful tool for consumers.

It's really not about the "idea"

Every now and then, I get asked how to get started as an entrepreneur, yet protect one's business idea from being copied or stolen. This is an irrelevant question. Or, at least, there are bigger fish to fry.

Here's what I said on Quora to someone who asked me to answer a variant of this question:

I've seen over and over that ideas are pretty much useless. Execution is where it's at. There are several businesses that are considered successes today, which originally started out doing something quite different. So it's about execution and adaptability.

via #entrepreneurfail

There are also several successful businesses that were followers not leaders, yet today they are more successful than the pioneer (e.g., Netscape->Firefox/Chrome, Altavista->Google, Friendster->Facebook, etc)

How do companies protect themselves? Technology is patentable but not business ideas. Even if you do have a patent, that doesn't mean the patent is valid (because patent offices generally don't have the resources to validate whether every single patent application is for something novel) or that you will have the financial muscle to enforce a valid patent in a court of law. So one can protect one's business by doing one or more of the following:

• constantly innovating to keep ahead of the market -- Google? Apple?
• devising a business model that makes it hard for your customers to leave -- MS, FB?
• devising a business model that allows you to control your suppliers -- Apple? Walmart?
• expanding quickly across your desired regions -- Groupon?
• obtaining special rights and concessions that protect you -- defence companies, banks, utilities...
• offering the best value -- Amazon?
• providing the best service in your specific region or location
• building a good brand over time -- Coke is Coke, Singapore Airlines is Singapore Airlines, no one can copy this

All of the above have risks, of course. (and not all the companies named above are successful at every single thing they do. I'm no fan of Groupon, for instance.)

Plus there's inertia -- just because someone hears your idea doesn't mean he's going to start doing it. People...
...are lazy.
...have other priorities.
...are risk-averse.
...may not share your dream or be imaginative about the problem you're seeking to solve in the same way as you.
...are sceptical.
All of this is a form of in-built protection for you.

So the short answer to your question is: have an idea? Who cares. First step: get started. Next step: keep moving.

None of this means you should disclose every last detail of your business idea to someone else. This is usually not necessary anyway.

If you're specifically worried about venture capitalists stealing your ideas, read this post as well.