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Moth Minds: Fund individuals doing work you believe in

mothminds.com

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Re: Moth Minds: Fund individuals doing work you believe in

#21

Post by coyotespike »

weego wrote: post #9
nickff wrote: post #4

This is an interesting premise, but I'm not sure that the pool of potential grant recipients will be a very good one. The problem that I foresee is that people working on these sorts of projects seem to fall into two broad categories: -People who don't want to work for someone else, but lack vision and exist on social proof. These people will be attracted to the grant funding, but unable to use it to create something…

I 'run' my own micro arts fund providing support for people in MH communities that would like supplies or tools to help as part of their ongoing rehab or change of career as a way of getting back into a life that means something. The answer really is if you expect a measurable outcome from small-scale investing in people then don't do it, you're in the wrong space. If you view your investment as a path to the outcome…

Yes, this sounds right!

If you approach it with the mindset of "let's free this person up for a while and see if this helps them do something cool" then you're more likely to be happy with the outcome.

This is not a job, after all, which would allow you to get a measurable or specific outcome - it's a grant!

Re: Moth Minds: Fund individuals doing work you believe in

#22

Post by somenewaccount1 »

bravogamma wrote: post #17

Tangential question. The painting at the top of the post is gorgeous. How did go about licensing it for use?

Looks like the copied the image directly from shopify cdn. Go here, click on the image for the popup, then open image in new tab. It's the exact same dimensions as the background image in op's post.

https://www.antlerpdx.com/collections/rebecca-luncan/product...

As far as I can find on the web, there are no digital copies available for sale. There is the small chance the person whom created the marketplace bought the original, but not likely.

Re: Moth Minds: Fund individuals doing work you believe in

#23

Post by nickff »

sombremesa wrote: post #5
nickff wrote: post #4

This is an interesting premise, but I'm not sure that the pool of potential grant recipients will be a very good one. The problem that I foresee is that people working on these sorts of projects seem to fall into two broad categories: -People who don't want to work for someone else, but lack vision and exist on social proof. These people will be attracted to the grant funding, but unable to use it to create something…

> The brilliant ones are so driven that they will often succeed without assistance. That might be true, but the level of success might change dramatically based on assistance. Founders know this, and may choose that path despite being capable of success regardless.

I completely agree, the problem is that the adverse selection problem makes finding these people difficult, and often uneconomical (not just unprofitable).

Re: Moth Minds: Fund individuals doing work you believe in

#24

Post by nickff »

webmaven wrote: post #20
nickff wrote: post #4

This is an interesting premise, but I'm not sure that the pool of potential grant recipients will be a very good one. The problem that I foresee is that people working on these sorts of projects seem to fall into two broad categories: -People who don't want to work for someone else, but lack vision and exist on social proof. These people will be attracted to the grant funding, but unable to use it to create something…

Even if I accept your model of reality, there are some pretty big problems that a grant could address: 1) the categories of 'brilliant' and 'delusional' aren't mutually exclusive, especially since both are spectra rather than binary. They aren't entirely orthogonal, however. 2) 'brilliant' and 'delusional' are each qualities that are very hard to evaluate except in hindsight. 3) Finally, it is possible for someone wh…

I agree with you on all three points; I was trying to point out that there's an adverse selection problem that the post doesn't seem to take into account. Even most VCs have a very difficult time making money by finding brilliant visionaries, and they have a number of factors working in their favor.

Re: Moth Minds: Fund individuals doing work you believe in

#25

Post by threshold »

Great idea, not the best choice of name. I think some of the criticism is valid. There are delusional lazy people that will sink your investment, and then there are driven brilliant types that will succeed with or without it on sheer perseverance. However - there are people between these states that would be wildly successful if they had a relaxation of resource constraints in addition to accountability, mentoring and social support. If you can deliver the package then there may be something excellent here. I hope it succeeds.

Re: Moth Minds: Fund individuals doing work you believe in

#26

Post by japhyr »

This is a wonderful idea, and I will be quite curious to see where it goes. I really, really like the idea of funding individuals we believe in, rather than specific projects.

It reminds me of Gittip from a decade ago, which morphed into Gratipay. That original idea of "distributed genius grants", which is reminiscent of MacArthur fellowships, was great.

Anyone digging into this space has to be willing to wade deep into fighting fraud. Any platform that allows people to funnel money their way is going to draw abusers and desperate people. I appreciate people who are willing to face this head on.

Re: Moth Minds: Fund individuals doing work you believe in

#27

Post by mike_d »

benfarahmand wrote: post #6

If the goal is developing grantee self-efficacy, the funding should require pairing with a mentor. Finding a mentor that is willing to guide a grantee to bring an idea to fruition is also validation of that individual's ability to accomplish the task.

I'd love to take a year and just build free security tools for people to use. I don't need a mentor to do that, I just need a salary replacement for that time period.

This reeks of the mantra of product managers everywhere... "There is no way a brilliant engineer would be able to create something great without management."

Re: Moth Minds: Fund individuals doing work you believe in

#28

Post by [deleted] »

bsedlm wrote: post #13
koheripbal wrote: post #10

I would like $100k to work on the Collatz conjecture for 6 months. I have an idea that will probably fail, but if I had that money I would quit my job work my ass off for six months to flesh it out. But I have no credentials, no way to write a grant proposal, and even I wouldn't invest in myself. ....and yet if we did this sort of experiment 10000 times over, humanity might make some big breakthroughs because some of…

sounds a lot like what VCs are already doing, except they're interested in business, not big breakthroughs

[deleted]

Re: Moth Minds: Fund individuals doing work you believe in

#30

Post by ok_dad »

koheripbal wrote: post #10

I would like $100k to work on the Collatz conjecture for 6 months. I have an idea that will probably fail, but if I had that money I would quit my job work my ass off for six months to flesh it out. But I have no credentials, no way to write a grant proposal, and even I wouldn't invest in myself. ....and yet if we did this sort of experiment 10000 times over, humanity might make some big breakthroughs because some of…

For something like this, if you have a good idea, why not explain it and make the idea public so someone with more time can research it? You'll only lose the chance to make a big name for yourself, and if it pans out you'll still get some credit, and the human race will have advanced in knowledge. It's not like you're giving away a possible formula to nuclear fusion. What's the downside I'm not seeing?
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