Please “steal” my idea

Chester XYZ
2 min readJul 30, 2014

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So I had this idea a while. haven’t worked on it:

“I had gotten a job in Inverness Scotland to develop revolutionary sentiment analysis software using machine learning techniques. As a part of the job, I got PhD paid for and results of the work would contribute to my PhD, so it was a very solid deal. On Saturday mornings in Inverness, I try as much as possible to get out of my house, so one Saturday morning I headed to the mall in the city center.

As I was about to enter the mall, I met a homeless guy who I had previously had a conversation with. At that time he had told me that he was from Poland and needed money for a drink[ alcohol]. Of course, I couldn’t oblige him, but since then he hailed me heartily and I likewise hailed him heartily. This time when I met him, he was selling magazines. I was happy that he had found some means to sustain himself, but I didn’t have any cash on me [seriously, I didn’t] or else I would have bought one. He then proceeded to tell me how difficult it was to get a job, apparently he had an electrical engineering degree and was drinking to bury the pain of not being able to suitably take care of himself.

Listening to him, I began to think of ways I could help him. I didn’t really want to directly tell him, he needs to do this or that because everybody else is doing that and frankly I don’t think it works. I think those means of helping someone only serves to annoy them. So by the time he had finished speaking, I hadn’t come up with a viable means to help him. Nevertheless, I continue thinking about it as I left him.

I really wanted to help him, so I decided to walk around more than I usually do. I find taking a long walk helps with my creativity. Along this walk it occurred to me what if we could travel to the future and find this guy’s future self who had solved all his problems and was now healthy and successful. The solution was impractical, but I knew this how my creative process works. All I needed to do is project this thought onto reality.

How could I get him to talk to his successful future self? Again it occurred to me, that people are a like and someone who is successful now, could have shared a similar history as his man. All I would have to do is get him to read this man’s history to show him how to get out of his given circumstance. That is how Timeline-X was born, to record the histories of its users so others can benefit from them. The idea has since evolved but the basic idea is to help people be the best they can be. .Amazing how this creative thing works that I don’t even have think about a thought directly but the answers flashes into my mind in an instant.”

[I didnt create timeline-x]

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