Marshall Brain's Blog

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In How to make a million dollars there is this quote:

Your job is to look at the American economy and all the people in it. Now think to yourself, "What can I do that some of these people need? What can I do that would make their lives better in some way, and they would be willing to pay money for?" All you need to do is figure out a way to snag 0.00001% of the money flowing around in the American economy in one year and you have made a million dollars.

Here is a classic example of that sort of thing:

Boy hailed for air safety gadget

From the article:

Daryn Murray's Aircraft Debris Protector warns pilots of dangerous material lying on runways before they prepare to land. The 12-year-old from East Kilbride was inspired by the Concorde crash near Paris which was thought to have been caused by a metal strip on the runway.

What is so interesting about this is that most of us heard about the Concorde crash and thought, "Wow, debris on the runway, that's too bad." Daryn instead thought, "Wow, debris on the runway - we should be able to fix that." Now he has an idea that people would be willing to pay money for.