Useful Ideas

Once in awhile I have ideas for things that I think would be useful to the world, but I wonder if it would just be useful to me, or if it really is a brilliant idea that's useful for many people. I would imagine most, if not all, of my ideas fall pretty far short of brilliant.

Years ago, I thought about a kitchen gadget which is a clip-on spout for bowls. It would come in different sizes. Sometimes you do some mixing in a bowl, or you want to pour liquids from one bowl to another, but depending on the bowl and the size of the lip, stuff usually runs down the outside of the bowl. What about a clip-on spout with silicon/rubber seal to keep from dripping? Attach it to any bowl, do the pouring you need - sans mess and drippage - and then detach the spout and throw it in the sink.

I wonder if that's already been done. If not, I wonder if Oxo reads this blog. I guess we'll see in about 6 months. (Oxo, if you use this idea for product design, at least comment on my blog, ok?)

Now I'm wondering if there is a website out there for people to collaborate on providing information about specific SBUX locations. For example, if I'm visiting a city and I want to look for a Starbucks to work at for 3 hours, I want to know things like: 1) Is the store big enough, with lots of tables? 2) Are there outlets all over the place, or even one of those long tables with an outlet in the middle? 3) What are their store hours? 4) What's the atmosphere like (empty all the time, filled with teenagers, etc.)? 5) Are there soft chairs or couches for people to lounge, or is it just wooden chairs and tables?

Things like that.

Would this be information that is only useful to me? Or would others benefit from a website like this? If so, I guess I should get to work on it. And figure out how it would generate revenue.

I'm a coder, a pragmatist, an implementer. Not an inventor or a businessman. But occasionally, I wish I could know if my ideas were already-tried or brilliant, or at least good enough to develop further.