Ask HN: Double the income of 10 million people? (Hult Prize)

#1

Post by bigquestion » Sat, Nov 21, 2015, 9:02 AM UTC

http://www.hultprize.org/en/compete/2016-prize/2016-timeline/

This year's Hult Prize is based on 'Crowded Urban Spaces' and has the challenge - "Can we build sustainable, scalable and fast-growing social enterprises that double the income of 10 million people residing in crowded urban spaces, by better connecting people, goods, services and capital?"

I was brainstorming for ideas but this seems a pretty audacious goal - to double the income of 10 million people. It probably isn't a hard requirement but it got me thinking - what kind of social enterprise could increase the income of so many people? Some sort of unskilled crowdsourced jobs, an "uber for jobs"? Presumably it would help poorer classes of society more, so internet-connected mobile apps are ruled out. How can we enable people to create value for others (thus increasing their income) in this manner? Also I assume this can't require too much manpower - is my assumption correct i.e. startups can't have manpower/capital for a grassroots movement.

Can this value creation be bought about by 1.a clever use of technology 2.IoT sensors 3.crowdsourcing previously-individual jobs (eg transport) 4.govt and NGO help for reaching out to end-users?

Would appreciate some brainstorming.

Re: Ask HN: Double the income of 10 million people? (Hult Prize)

#2

Post by DrScump » Sat, Nov 21, 2015, 9:11 AM UTC

It would be easiest to do so for 10 million of the poorest. Microlending and clean water initiatives like Living Water give a lot of bang for the buck, both in providing water for small-scale agriculture and saving the immense amount of time and effort it takes just to haul water for drinking and household use, often poor quality water at that.

Re: Ask HN: Double the income of 10 million people? (Hult Prize)

#3

Post by bigquestion » Sat, Nov 21, 2015, 9:18 AM UTC

DrScump wrote: post #2

It would be easiest to do so for 10 million of the poorest. Microlending and clean water initiatives like Living Water give a lot of bang for the buck, both in providing water for small-scale agriculture and saving the immense amount of time and effort it takes just to haul water for drinking and household use, often poor quality water at that.

Yes its probably simpler for the poorest 10 million. For the urban poor(no agriculture) maybe some sort of 'become a microentrepreneur' movement would be more relevant? Maybe a Mechanical Turk for real-world tasks instead of computing tasks?

Re: Ask HN: Double the income of 10 million people? (Hult Prize)

#4

Post by insoluble » Sat, Nov 21, 2015, 8:29 PM UTC

I would be more interested in something that doubled the efficiency (output/effort ratio) of work for 10 million people. The focus on money alone is asking for manipulation or even abuse. For one example, if we somehow pushed 10 million students to work full time instead of part time, that could "double" their income -- all the while decreasing the quality of their learning. For another example, if you took a business sector that produced an essential good (like clean water) and simply tripled the price (say by mandate), that could double the income of those working in the sector. For yet another example, if all lenders suddenly conspired to double their interest rates, that would also increase their incomes without actually helping society. To top it off, if you doubled the value of welfare payments, that would also double select persons' "incomes".

Aside from improved efficiency, the idea of giving unemployed persons fair jobs is also a worthwhile consideration. An innovation that allowed disabled persons to work more effectively is another idea. The main reason I focus on efficiency here is because, at least when not monopolised, it is virtually guaranteed to improve the quality of life for humans as a whole. Simply doubling someone's income does not have a guaranteed positive effect on society.

Re: Ask HN: Double the income of 10 million people? (Hult Prize)

#5

Post by bigquestion » Sat, Nov 21, 2015, 9:58 PM UTC

insoluble wrote: post #4

I would be more interested in something that doubled the efficiency (output/effort ratio) of work for 10 million people. The focus on money alone is asking for manipulation or even abuse. For one example, if we somehow pushed 10 million students to work full time instead of part time, that could "double" their income -- all the while decreasing the quality of their learning. For another example, if you took a busines…

To increase the efficiency of many people working in diverse domains, probably a '1-size-fits-all' solution would be hard to find. So something generic - one idea is, generally getting mentored by someone more experienced than you increases your efficiency/helps your career. (Mostly) everybody could use a guide/mentor, either for careers or personal lives. It could be a sort of referral program - to get access to a mentor older than you, you have to mentor someone younger than you.

Re: Ask HN: Double the income of 10 million people? (Hult Prize)

#6

Post by insoluble » Sun, Nov 22, 2015, 4:05 AM UTC

bigquestion wrote: post #5

insoluble wrote: post #4

I would be more interested in something that doubled the efficiency (output/effort ratio) of work for 10 million people. The focus on money alone is asking for manipulation or even abuse. For one example, if we somehow pushed 10 million students to work full time instead of part time, that could "double" their income -- all the while decreasing the quality of their learning. For another example, if you took a busines…

To increase the efficiency of many people working in diverse domains, probably a '1-size-fits-all' solution would be hard to find. So something generic - one idea is, generally getting mentored by someone more experienced than you increases your efficiency/helps your career. (Mostly) everybody could use a guide/mentor, either for careers or personal lives. It could be a sort of referral program - to get access to a m…

Certain healthcare innovations could in theory increase efficiency quite a bit for many people across various domains. Only if there were a way to make people smarter. Perhaps computer-brain interfaces could improve efficiency in some areas. Nevertheless, most improvements in efficiency from an innovation would be in a specific set of domains.

Re: Ask HN: Double the income of 10 million people? (Hult Prize)

#7

Post by tixocloud » Mon, Nov 23, 2015, 4:15 PM UTC

It's great that we can all brainstorm ideas but for you to come up with really great solutions, it's just like customer development for any startup - reach out to the ones you're trying to build a solution for. Who are these 10 million people you're trying to help? What are their real problems? Without their input, I don't think we can truly come up with great solutions.

Unskilled crowdsourced jobs are great in the short-term but can people reasonably live on these solutions for the rest of their lifetime? What kind of impact do you want to create? Short-term? Long-term?

I personally love the idea of microlending and it would be interesting to see how you can empower the urban poor through such an initiative.