While many of us have reasonably fulfilling professional lives, there is still the need to make mortgage payments and other financial needs that will keep us grinding away at a day job for years to come. And thus we find ourselves working on problems or industry sectors that we don't particularly care for.<p>So I wanted to try this thought experiment: Imagine that you are immediately freed of all financial obligations for the rest of your life (housing, taking care of family, saving for retirement etc).<p>What kind of software would you be bringing into existence <i>then</i>?
I think we could be doing much more to enable the other 1/2 of humanity to join us online as equals, Stripe Atlas is like a tentative step 1 of many. People in developing countries face such stupid limitations that effectively restrict them to just being consumers of the internet. I have some ideas percolating that I hope will help democratize the internet a little bit more for when I finish with my current company.<p>There are also a lot of shitty practices I would like to help erode - like automatically converting abandoned free trials into paying customers, or not providing an online way to cancel online trials etc. "Dark patterns" rely on nobody calling them out.<p>Frivolous privacy violations and impediments are also an area of interest, especially as the least democratic countries join us online encumbered by hateful laws.
I'd create an alternative mobile OS from the ground up. I've become disillusioned with iOS and Android both. Neithor of them nor any of the alternatives make full use of the hardware. Phones are capable of doing so much, yet in practice they fail when you ask them to do much of anything.<p>Or, maybe I'd just build myself an electric motorcycle. There's a lot of interesting work in Battery management these days and a motorcycle is a good platform for experimentation.
I've gotten bored with software so, I'll take your question and extend it to my interests. Found a motor with pretty good torque(~2 ft/lbs):<p><a href="https://www.servocity.com/html/124_rpm_econ_gearmotor__638352.html#.V3bIa_krJdg" rel="nofollow">https://www.servocity.com/html/124_rpm_econ_gearmotor__63835...</a><p>Want to turn it into a servo and eventually a robotic arm which could extend out 3 ft and lift about 1-1.5 lbs. for about $200.
Too many dreams:
I would build a better Second Life.
A programming language.
Something to aid medical research.
A low-cost, widely accessible medical imaging solution (MRI would be the start).
I would build a better Soundcloud, and I would make a point of sales system targeted at the medical marijuana market.<p>I would also make a dating website for artists.