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The world's most popular goals
- Giorgio 17y agoIf by "world", you mean the female population of San Francisco, I guess this is pretty accurate... I mean... "Kiss in the rain" in 14th position? Really?
- maukdaddy 17y agoOddly enough that list seems to correlate with: http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/ http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/
- FluidDjango 17y agoTake a look at the some of the "How I did it" people (and what they're concerned about 'doing'). This strikes me as a strange (not to mention unappealing (to me) ) population. "Lowest common denominator" comes to mind. I'd have to see some better-analyzed data and learn something about this population's income, likelihood of following up on their 'goals', etc. before I made any business decisions based on this.
- xs 17y agouhh, someone care to tell me the diff between 15. take more photos and 99. take more pictures? also doesn't anyone find it ironic that people wan to write books more than they want to read more books?
- blhack 17y agoPhotos are composed, planned, things you would frame and hang on the wall. Pictures are random things that might end up on facebook.
- Kilimanjaro 17y agoOut of all the goals, the only one not worth pursuing is getting a tattoo. Parenting is failing somewhere.
- holeykermoley 17y agoAren't many of these goals vague, aspirational and banal? I would like to take this as evidence that setting goals simply doesn't work. Better is to try to identify one's mistakes. That's how progress is truly made.
- ordinaryman 17y agoJust did a quick check and found that just 9 of them are available as domain names, while 91 are already booked !! Those available are : goonaroadtripwithnopredetermineddestination.com havebetterposture.com wakeupwhenmyalarmclockgoesoff.com decidewhatthehelliwouldliketodowiththerestofmylife.com spendlesstimefoolingaroundonthenetandmoretimeactuallyworking.com stopcaringwhatotherpeoplethinkofme.com figureoutwhatiwanttodowithmylife.com goonaroadtrip.com identify100thingsthatmakemehappybesidesmoney.com When you prefix HowTo you still have around 48 left.
- drtse4 17y agoI'd like to see that grouped by country. And another interesting thing, if you click on an item you can see on the right the average time the users needed to check that activity as completed.
- scotty79 17y agoThis seems to be very heavily skewed towards US. Also something wrong with average completion times: Get a tatoo - This goal takes 6091 years to complete
- ximeng 17y agoLearn mandarin: On average: This goal takes 345 years to complete Ouch.
- drtse4 17y agoI'd love to learn that... maybe i should reconsider it :)
- wallflower 17y agoYes, another repost, another classic essay: "Why Chinese is So Damn Hard" http://www.pinyin.info/readings/texts/moser.html http://www.pinyin.info/readings/texts/moser.html
- duck 17y agoProbably b/c people think it would be cool and then decide it's not and never do it.
- nreece 17y agoYeah, apparently it takes 9 years (avg) to fall in love but it takes only 8 years to get married.
- rokhayakebe 17y agoAnd 7 years (avg) to divorce.
- mstevens 17y agoFree startup ideas! Get your free startup ideas here! Taking the first ten, for example: # lose weight 37862 people - dieting website - exercise website # stop procrastinating 27741 people - 8aweek - rescuetime - leechblock - your-own-twist - iPhone app with random advice on meditation and focus. # write a book 27115 people - writer's editor. - A way to make money off content without publishers # Fall in love 25192 people - dating website # be happy 22707 people # Get a tattoo 20911 people - tattoo directory! - Design-your-tattoo online, and book with our range of licensed artists # drink more water 19639 people - Subscribe to bottled water deliveries online! # get married 19348 people - Dating website - Wedding organiser # travel the world 19122 people - travel tips - low cost online travel agency # go on a road trip with no predetermined destination 19098 people - Worldwide mobile phone packages - Post-to-email service - travel tips again etc etc
- brown9-2 17y ago# lose weight 37862 people - dieting website - exercise website aren't there about a million of these?
- RyanMcGreal 17y agoYes, and they're not working. That's a great opportunity to build something that does work!
- startuprules 17y agoWhat makes you think all of them aren't working?
- mstevens 17y agoWell maybe they work a little, but the number of fat people I see every day (starting with myself in the mirror) suggests they could work better.
- startuprules 17y ago
- puredemo 17y agoLose weight? Maybe someday, after I finish my book and fall in love..
- pingou 17y agoI can think of a more efficient order to get a romantic partner.
- biggitybones 17y agoWhile not surprising, I still find it interesting the number of generic, immeasurable, and fantastical goals at the top of the list like "be happy", "stop procrastinating", "fall in love", etc etc. Perhaps they're the most frequent because it's much more difficult to measure them and thus harder to fully achieve, or perhaps it's telling the same inherent set of goals that's instilled in us as we grow, or maybe it explains the feelings of a large percentage of people. Any way you look at, data like this aggregated across a population is always interesting. I love the trend of startups publishing things like this now.
- revorad 17y agoThat list is hilarious, and not just because of the title. The world that is made up of 100,000 people? Really?
- DanielStraight 17y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sample_%28statistics%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sample_%28statistics%29 100k people is quite a large sample. Conclusions about the world have been made from much smaller samples.
- scotty79 17y agoRepresentative sample of this size would be something. But that's just some visibly skewed sample.
- pierrefar 17y agoIt's 100k people with internet access that speak English. Most likely US and UK based, likely to be using broadband. They clearly have aspirations beyond the basic necessities (read more, run marathons, learn languages), suggesting they perceive a certain level of free time available to dedicate to such pursuits. Heck, Grey's Anatomy is in the top 100. My point is that this 100k sample is likely to not be representative of the world.
- hugh3 17y agoIf you're gonna complain about something I'd complain about the fact that people's publically stated goals often differ substantially from their actual goals.
- DanielStraight 17y agoI will agree that the sample is skewed, but I wasn't trying to make the point that the particular 100k people in question constitute a representative sample of the world. I was replying to the sentiment that because the world doesn't consist of 100k people, you can't call 100k people's goals the world's goals. I may not have expressed that as clearly as I could have. I agree; this represents only a certain type of person in the world, but again, conclusions about the world have been drawn from more specific types. I just feel it's petty to focus on the title of the article, when the word "world" is consistently applied in narrower senses.
- aaronheckmann 17y agoMost popular languages to learn on the list: #1 Spanish #2 Japanese #3 Sign language
- othello 17y agoActually, French pops in at #24, right before Japanese at #30. Hence #1 Spanish, #2 French, #3 Japanese, #4 Sign Language.
- fbailey 17y agoI did it all and can tell you from my experience most of them are not worth it. I think it's actually a sad list, lot of things people think will make them happy, but instead of just trying them out the fill lists with goals. It's actually like a really long business plan ... after reading 20 pages you just start thinking "just do it!".
- alphabeat 17y agoI can't even fathom having "watch grey's anatomy" as a goal. I don't even...
- keefe 17y agono doubt, how does this make the top list???
- epochwolf 17y agoPoor sample size/selection?
- trafficlight 17y agoHow dare you crush my dreams.
- edw519 17y agowtf, 100 goals and mine isn't even there... I want a user "shaking with excitement". I've had lots of happy users, but I don't thing I've ever had one shaking with excitement to use my software. I got this new goal after reading this article about patio11's Bingo Card Creator: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/01/what-makes-a-great-teacher/7841/ http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/01/what-mak... Next, Mr. Taylor announces it’s time for Multiplication Bingo. As Mr. Taylor reads off a problem ("20 divided by 5"), the kids scour their boards, chips in hand, looking for 4's. One girl is literally shaking with excitement. Another has her hands clasped in a prayer position. I find myself wanting to play. You know you're in a good classroom if you have to stop yourself from raising your hand.
- Sindisil 17y agoThat is the most inspirational thing I've heard all week, perhaps so far this month! Thanks for that!
- RevRal 17y agoThat's a little depressing. I'm visualizing most of these people keeping these "goals" at arms length, or further, until their deaths. Most of the crap on that list I wouldn't consider as "goals." Write a book? I've done that, twice, and am currently writing another. For some reason, I don't register "book" as the goal, even though that's the outcome I expect to eventually reach, after the hundreds of tasks and the mind-bending logic that goes into completing the book.
- ra 17y agoKiss the rain???????