The best of No Dumb Ideas so far
A brief look back after 30 posts
Thirty posts ago,1 No Dumb Ideas launched with a big idea: what if a bar charged more to drunker patrons?
Today, over 1,800 of you subscribe to No Dumb Ideas — which is still totally insane to me. Thank you for reading.
With this being my 30th post, it hit me that it’s probably time to check off a Substack requirement: a start here page.
So, here’s a look at 7 of my favorite NDI articles. If you’re a new reader, I hope you’ll take a second to see if any catch your interest.
A selection of the best NDI has to offer
The idea: What if we used prediction market contracts to pay lobbying firms? It’s a dumb-sounding idea that unlocks entirely new ways for lobbyists to engage with clients and influence officials. This is possibly my all-time favorite article, which had poor timing in being the third one posted.
The idea: what if you turned jobs into assets that you could buy, sell, or rent? It’s an idea that becomes less ridiculous the more you think about it — although I don’t think we’re likely to actually see it anytime soon.
An overview of 16th century gambling rings betting on who the next Pope will be. This article came out of my brief obsession with the (surprisingly rich) historical literature on papal betting odds. This also led to my first and only podcast appearance on Odd Lots.
The idea: make job applicants donate $1 to charity before they can apply to a job. Based on the response, I genuinely think this could work to reduce noise and help people get jobs faster. Unfortunately, whoever starts it needs to be pretty brave to endure the almost-certain media firestorm.
My backlog of ideas is full of ETF concepts. The idea: a SPY ETF that spends 10% of its AUM on buying lottery tickets. The math ends up being surprisingly plausible — I think we’ll actually see this one someday.
The idea: let people sell their legacy admissions spots at top universities. Inherited privilege has a lot of value; it sort of makes sense that someone would try to make it liquid. It just might require some adult adoption to pull it off.
I’ve had a lot of fun writing No Dumb Ideas, and I hope you’ve been having a lot of fun reading it. Here’s to the next 30 — if you have a big idea drop it in the comments, and if you like NDI, share it with a friend.
Technically 32 weeks ago. Some behind the scenes: there were two articles that I just didn’t think were good enough to post. My perfect 32/32 score came second to respecting your time.