3 ms·

Anything is possible: "After you read the New York Times over breakfast, a drone comes to pick it up, and you resell it as a fire starter."

• frou_dh 10y ago
  drone : service-economy :: pickaxe : gold-rush
  • dsr_ 10y ago
    I'm looking for X, in X : service-economy :: jeans : gold-rush Because it turned out that lots of people liked having tough, reliable pants that had been proven to work by people using them all the time, and later there was lots of room for diversification. There's not much profit in pickaxes once the gold-rush wears off.
    • ChrisLTD 10y ago
      The X was smart phones. Unfortunately, Apple and Samsung made all the money there.
    • vinceguidry 10y ago
      Jeans were an actual innovation, if you sold pickaxes in a gold rush, you were basically running a glorified 7-11. But getting rich selling jeans during a gold rush requires luck, you have to already have the skill to sew before you go out West. Otherwise you're just like every schmoe out there looking to get rich. If you get out there and realize there's big money to be made in jeans, then by the time you're ready to compete effectively the opportunity to generate outsized returns is already gone. The people who typically get rich during gold rushes already have 10 years of experience doing the thing they got rich doing, and they got there first. You need both foresight, the capability to be where you are needed when you're needed there and not after the big money has already been made, and luck, the happenstance of already having the skills that were needed. Foresight can be learned, but luck can't be controlled.