Hark it! Hark it! Hear a market?

This page is for entrepreneurs-in-waiting. Not the rich types who have already built a product and the market for it. Not even for the happy hunters who have a product, a plan, and hope of venture financing. This page is for entrepreneurs who have not yet figured out that they will be entrepreneurs.

An entrepreneur is someone who spots a need, figures out how to meet the need at a cost that matches the need, and figures out how to market the needed product.

Education is certainly a place to spot needs. Occasionally, an entrepreneur figures out how to meet an educational need at reasonable cost.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Cliff. Cliff Hillegass

Some things in the Thinkerer section on study may suggest needs to some future entrepreneur. A widely taught course might have enough needers to make a potential market. This is the tale of the Long Tail, as told by Chris Anderson.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Tail

This tale, based on the experience of Amazon.com and E-bay says that if you can reach a large population, you can successfully market things that only serve a small fraction of the people. Here are pages in the Thinkerer suggesting things that only serve a small fraction of the people.

http://www.thinkerer.org/Studying/StudyAudioTM.htm
http://www.thinkerer.org/Studying/StudyRepeatTM.htm

I called these Maybe Markets. They are things that take creativity and a little skill with computers. They could easily be offered on the web. To get much use out of them, a person would have to do some editing and aggregating. Maybe just the thing for someone in journalism or marketing. Might not make money. But it still might look good on a resume’.

Beating the Borers (1)

Researchers at the University of Michigan Health System have found a way to combat the sleepiness and to keep students awake during class, and it doesn't have anything to do with caffeine or high-sugar snacks.

In a study published in the latest issue of the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, they report that students in a class who were taught to self-administer acupressure treatments to stimulation points on their legs, feet, hands and heads were more alert and less fatigued.

"The study showed that a stimulation acupressure regimen leads to a statistically significant reduction in sleepiness compared to an acupressure treatment that focuses on relaxation," says Richard E. Harris, Ph.D., research investigator in the Division of Rheumatology at the U-M Medical School's Department of Internal Medicine and a researcher at the U-M Health System's Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center.
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Here I introduce a series about the Borers. The Borers are better known by their full title: The Brain Borers That Ate Your Memory. In this episode, we see the Scientist (For every Menace, there is a Scientist.) discovering the Weakness (Menaces always have a Weakness).

Actually, what the research showed was a reduction in sleepiness in self-reports on the Stanford Sleepiness Scale. The researchers note that future research will be needed to determine whether there is an effect on classroom performance.

This paradigm is the ideal placebo study for two reasons. First, self-reports are highly susceptible to the placebo effect. Second, a placebo effect here might be just what you want. The treatment, skin pressure, is harmless, easy, and free. If it does any good at all, for whatever reason, it is worth the cost.

What’s more, this kind of treatment almost guarantees a placebo effect for people who believe in it. And a placebo effect might even be more useful than a real effect here. A placebo effect would work even if you didn’t get the pressure point right or didn’t do the treatment right. You could do it right there in class, just when the lecture got really boring.

The experimenter in this case had the people press their points at lunch. But I think it would probably work better right when you need it. The usual advice to people who get sleepy while studying is to get up, walk around, get some coffee, and take a short break. That would produce an entertaining effect in a lecture, but authority figures would probably not like it. But people can press their points without bothering anyone.

By the way, I’m not sure what the points are, but the information is probably available from the article or the author.

Praise and the Poop Factor

Some psychologists and authors are backtracking on their earlier directives to praise, praise, praise. They say overpraising creates overinflated egos, not positive self-esteem. It also overly protects children from experiencing conflict and failure. It’s something to think about as another school year begins.

Among those making a U-turn is Florida State University psychology professor Roy Baumeister, who for 30 years attempted to document the value of positive self-esteem, only to experience “one of the biggest disappointments of my career.”
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Above is from The World of Psychology blog by John Grohol: http://psychcentral.com/blog/

Self-esteem's role long has been overrated, says child psychologist David Anderegg, author of the parenting book Worried All the Time (Free Press, $24).

About those directives. I don’t recall any directives from psychologists telling parents to apply praise indiscriminately. Besides, psychologists have no authority to issue directives. I think I have seen such advice from authors. And authors, of course, do have authority to issue directives. Fortunately, parents have the authority to ignore directives.

Most psychologists would point out that praise serves to strengthen the praised behavior. Thus, it would be unwise to praise ineffective behavior.

Because children understand language, however, parents can make effective distinctions about what they are praising. Even though the child does not succeed, a parent might praise the child:
for trying,
for improving,
for a well-done part of the task, or
for bounce-back.

Here are a few related ideas from the Thinkerer.
http://www.thinkerer.org/HeadView/HeadBounce.htm
http://www.thinkerer.org/HeadView/HeadConfidence.htm

The only public part of the success story is the last act.
Failure is not in falling down; it is in staying down.
If failure were fatal, we’d all be dead.
Practice the bounce-back routine. Yes, it does exist. But only for successful people.
You do not build self-confidence out of failing. You build it out of bouncing back.
The difference between a trial run and a failure lies in what you get out of it.
If you always succeed, you are overqualified for your job.
Thomas Edison: I have not failed. I've just found 1,000 ways that won't work.
You did not fail if you learned how to do better next time.
Obstacles are just nature’s way of showing us what we can do.
Challenges are the root stock of confidence.
Football would be a lot easier without the other team.
Self-confidence grows not from what you can do, but what you know you can do

General update

A little unity here. The parenting section of Thinkerer
http://www.thinkerer.org/Parenting/ParIntro.htm
connected to the Study section

http://www.thinkerer.org/Topics/TopicsStudy.htm

The Study section connected to the team section
http://www.thinkerer.org/Studying/StudyTeam.htm

And the team section connected to the parenting section
http://www.thinkerer.org/Studying/StudyTeamPAR.htm

I am still working on Quest Questions, descriptors, and review, but I think the configuration is usable as is. The study integrator at the most concrete level is
http://www.thinkerer.org/Studying/StudySkillsRatem.htm

I am still figuring out how to provide a second Mechanizer. That is to come out of the time-line notion. More generally, a time-line is a 2-d layout presenting the most relevant dimensions of the content. And it will tie in with review as well as descriptors.

People can use the Ratem page as a rating device and then follow links to pages about specific skills. The current content deals with how, but not with when. I will add that when I figure it out.