Damon Pace's posterous

One of these things is not like the others... 

How would an idea hacker fix the USPS?

Let's face it...mail is an antiquated form of communication. The USPS needs help badly. They are a colossal failure and getting worse by the day. Between being built on an ancient system, managed by bureaucrats and over sought by a slow government they can't find two ideas to rub together. The system may have been genius at the time of creation, but it's highly antiquated in the digital age. I want to help by throwing out some ideas to grease the wheels of creativity on how a libertarian hacker would turn the USPS around. I stand by my ideas, but by no means do I think they are the only ones out there. If you have any of your own, feel free to chime in and add to the list.

1. Change the address system: Right now the delivery method first looks at the address and not the user. It should be the other way around. Find the user first and then send it to the address where that user is located. Think about it...when you send a piece of mail, are you sending it to an individual or are you sending it to a location? I send all my mail to an individual. I don't care where they are located. Just get it to the person or business. Skip the address, I don't need it.

2. Usernames and online account management: This is a no brainer. There needs to be a way for everyone to manage their mail online. Give me a username along with the ability to edit my current residence. Once you have this, there are so many opportunities for advancement. Notifications of new mail, scanned images of the outside of your package/letter, billing management...whatever. Once you have the people using the system, you open the door to so many more opportunities.

3. Build an open API: This is standard in the web world, but try talking to the postmaster general about this one and they'll be glossy eyed in no time. If the USPS built an API onto a user database and opened it up to anyone willing to build onto the USPS system, the world would be a better place. The API would pay dividends, create innovation and drive efficiencies we can't even imagine today. They would have to allow for profitability though. Having fun and making a difference is a good reason to help...but profit is way more powerful.

4. Change home delivery frequency: The mail I usually read is either a bill or a package. The rest is junk and doesn't need to be delivered at all, let alone daily. I rarely check my mail and find it pointless when I do. Home delivery should only be done once a week, just like the garbage man. Your bills, letters and packages can wait. If not, get a PO Box and check it as often as you like.

5. PO Boxes: What if PO Boxes were more like RedBox? Punch in your PO Box number and a passcode and out shoots all your mail and packages. You could dramatically increase the number of PO Boxes a post office has on hand. Hell, you could even have a drive through like a bank if you wanted to. Fully automated and systemized. Robots galore! I love it.

6. Real Estate: Get rid of it!. The USPS should run more like an Amazon warehouse and less like McDonalds. The USPS does not need to be a store. That's what UPS and Fedex are for. Focus on your core competency and forget about all the other non-sense.

7. Change the pricing structure: Drive people to use all electrical means possible to communicate. Actually, let's tax the shit out it and force people to do everything online. Just like we do with gasoline so no one wants to drive anymore. Then we can blame Big Mail instead of our tax code. </LibertarianRant>

h/t to Danielle Morrill for bringing this up in Facebook. http://www.daniellemorrill.com/

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Understanding Lawyers

"Have you ever seen the movie “Monsters Inc.”?

 It’s a cute animated Disney film about Big Scary Monsters. All day long they go through magical doors, each leading into a bedroom of a young child sleeping at night, and the monster’s job is to scare the shit out of that kid and extract screams for money.

That’s very much like the life of a lawyer. He goes about his work day, new situations come up, he gets involved and scares some people, he gets paid. The better he is at scaring people, the better paid he is."

http://hustlebear.com/2010/12/14/how-to-handle-lawyers-threatening-you/

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How to win at monopoly?

It's been a while since I've played monopoly...at least the real game...but I do remember how to win. 

The point of monopoly is to own assets and limit liabilities as much as possible. If I land on Park Place and you own it, I have to pay you rent..Right? If you actually have buildings on it I pay even more...Right? So the goal is not to simply own as much land as possible, but to BUILD on it too so that you can make as much money as possible. It's a great way for anyone to learn about capitalism and business. It's not just a real estate lesson, but a lesson for all types of businesses. Take something raw and build the highest possible value on top of it. If you don't do this one simple thing, you'll miss out on the opportunity to win the game/make money.

I'm in the process of proving a point about the value of a raw domain vs the value of a developed domain. Ultimately, the domaining game is the same game as monopoly. Buy something raw and build on it to make the most money possible. A lot of domainers choose not to build on their domain. Maybe they don't know how or don't have the additional resources to do it. Either way, they simply buy host and hold the domain until somebody else comes along and decides they want to pay a very high price for it. Domainers are leaving huge opportunities on the table unnecessarily. Advertising clicks are valuable...but nothing compared to if you built a real business on top of the raw domain.

Take the glaring example of Diapers.com and Soap.com. They just sold it for $545 million to Amazon. Do you think anyone would pay that for just the domains only? HELL NO! Each domain may have been purchased for a few hundred thousand, but that's about it.

If you're a domainer with a great domain and you want to build something, contact me. I have a platform to build anything you want extremely quickly. Details can be discussed later, but I'm here to help because I needed the same thing for myself...so I built it. Right now, I'm in the process of building out a great LLL domain right now and will be releasing it soon. Keep your eyes peeled.

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Carl Sagan on Religion & the Universe

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Funeral by Band of Horses

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Solitary Man by Johnny Cash

Melinda was mine 'til the time that I found her
Holdin' Jim
And lovin' him
Then Sue came along, loved me strong, that's what I thought
But me and Sue,
That died, too.
Don't know that I will but until I can find me
A girl who'll stay and won't play games behind me
I'll be what I am
A solitary man
A solitary man
I've had it here - being where love's a small word
A part time thing
A paper ring
I know it's been done havin' one girl who loves you
Right or wrong
Weak or strong

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Andrew Ryan from the BioShock video game.

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Einstein's thoughts on Religion

"We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn't know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God. We see the universe marvelously arranged and obeying certain laws but only dimly understand these laws. Our limited minds grasp the mysterious force that moves the constellations." - Albert Einstein

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"Kandi" by One EskimO

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The xx - Intro

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