Volume 3: My days in a college fraternity Chapter 86 Entrepreneurial Ideas
In the linear algebra class, Jason and Tommy sat quietly in the last row, but they still couldn't avoid being the most eye-catching presence in this large classroom that accommodated more than ninety students.
From time to time, students turned their heads and looked at the two of them with a smile.
"Thank you, Jason, for giving me such an intuitive understanding of Spanish cuisine." Tommy was wearing a bloated doll promotional suit of a Spanish restaurant, dressing himself up as a Spanish ham. He stared at the podium and said desperately to Jason, who was dressed as a fried cheese roll next to him, "I told you to stay awake."
Jason knew he was in the wrong, so he could only comfort Tommy and said, "Look at the bright side, Boss. We can wear these two outfits to class. Maybe the restaurant owner will be willing to pay us a small part-time advertising fee, and we won't be treated as transvestites like those other assholes."
After missing out on women's clothing, Jason finally thought of another way to get clothes. He said that the Spanish restaurant where he worked part-time had placed two advertising doll models outside the teaching building, so he and Tommy wrapped themselves in blankets and ran outside the teaching building, stripped the doll clothes off the models, and put them on themselves. That's why the two of them became the most eye-catching people in the classroom.
The reason why you wear this kind of clothes to attend class on time and are unwilling to go back to the dormitory to change clothes is mainly because Stanford University attaches great importance to students' attendance rate and homework completion rate, which will eventually be converted into your total grade in college. Every time you are late, every time you miss a class, every time you fail to complete your homework on time, it will quietly lower your total grade. Then when your grade drops to a limit value, you will receive a notice of expulsion from the university, indicating that your grade is no longer qualified to receive education here.
Time is spent in constant torture. This kind of torture does not mean that SSD has designed many means of deliberate torture, but as a freshman, you have to attend classes on time, complete the massive homework assigned by the professor, review in advance for exams, and be busy almost until eleven o'clock or even later every day. At the same time, you have to squeeze out time to read the fraternity's rookie handbook and memorize the Greek letters, various rules and regulations in it, because the fraternity will also test the rookies every week to see if they remember the rules. If they can't remember, it means they don't pay enough attention to the fraternity. If you fail the exams twice in a row, you will say goodbye to the fraternity.
So rather than the pressure of schoolwork and boring manual memorization, those nonsensical, stupid tasks seemed more like stress-relieving activities to prevent them from going crazy under the pressure.
For example, if you are wearing a large knitted coat and a thread is thrown out to tie a deer, and then the deer will be released, then you need to chase the deer frantically to untie the thread or keep your distance, otherwise the only coat on your body will become less and less as the thread is pulled away, and finally you will be left with nothing.
Or they may accidentally take laxatives without knowing it, and then the nine rookies are forcibly taken to a location one thousand meters away from the nearest toilet, ready to run for the toilet. When they finally reach the toilet, suppressing the urge to defecate, they find that there are only five stalls. The last four rookies who arrive can only wail in despair.
Through repeated pranks and tricks, the old-timers began to become warm to the rookies. After all, to put it bluntly, the fraternity is just a student club that has designed various means and rituals to make itself look older and more mysterious. When they see the rookies working hard to join them, they will not be stingy with their kindness and are willing to provide all kinds of help.
For example, when they learned that Jason had received a warning from the professor because the repetition rate of his answers in a certain assignment reached 50% with that of his classmates, several veterans would spend several hours teaching him how to write an appeal letter to the school, explaining to the professor that Jason did not plagiarize, but the other party plagiarized him without Jason's knowledge, and successfully get the professor to withdraw the warning.
When some rookies need technical support, the veterans who happen to have time will be willing to help solve technical problems. For example, Tommy only left one computer and moved the other four to the Fraternity House. He gave his ideas, asked everyone to provide technical support, and listened to their feedback.
"Tommy, I think your idea is the same as shit, there is no innovation." Eric sat in front of the computer, stopped what he was doing, lit a cigarette, and then threw the cigarette box at Tommy who was concentrating on typing code next to him and said, "You just copied the functions of those softwares. Those softwares are already on the market. What's the purpose of doing this?"
Tommy took the cigarette and lit it. "What I want to do is not only to copy, but also to provide a better user experience for these software. For example, this software, temporarily named SSD-2, in my mind, I want to remove the chart drawing function and database management function of Louts1-2-3, and only retain the core spreadsheet function and improve it, add functions such as automatic calculation and filling, and then put WordStarI also improved the electronic document function of the software, adding some quick functions such as word search, automatic segmentation, and adding footnotes. Basically, I copied them, but the finished product is easier and faster to use than them. "
"The word search feature sounds good, but WordStar doesn't seem to have it." Eric was stunned for a moment after hearing what Tommy said, and then he said, "Every time I finish writing on the computer and want to check if a word in my homework is wrong, I can only stare at it line by line to find it. Frankly speaking, just this feature makes me look forward to this shit you made."
These features that caught Eric's eyes were summarized by Tommy Hawke after he had used most of the office software on the market during this period of time, and by recalling the basic functions of Word, Excel and other software that had already matured in his previous life. Although there are many types of document software and spreadsheet software nowadays, their functions are still very simple. Generally speaking, the subsequent updates of this kind of office software rely on user feedback to decide whether to add or adjust certain functions. As a time traveler, Tommy's only chance to overtake is that he has used very mature software of the same type and knows many practical functions that these software lack at this time.
It’s just that some functions can be realized, while some cannot be realized for the time being due to the development of technology. However, the several convenient functions he just proposed can already be realized based on existing technology.
He didn't think about developing a completely new software. He just wanted to develop a software that was simpler than other office software on the market, easier to get started with, more compatible with opening files from other similar software as much as possible, and able to run successfully on the cheapest and best-selling personal computers.
"Do you know how much a white-collar worker who knows how to use Louts1-2-3 earns per week? As long as he remembers more than 600 key combinations, he can get nearly 300 yuan a week and be treated as a computer genius by his boss. Even the developers of office software are consciously or unconsciously emphasizing this point to show the professionalism of the software. It seems that as long as you can operate their software, you can become an elite. But I am going to expose their masks, that is, this thing does not require much technical skills to operate. I will try to control the operation manual to ten pages, so that a housewife can use this software to complete the same work as those elites as long as she memorizes it, and we must be compatible with the files of those software." Tommy looked at the computer screen and said to Eric:
"This will allow capitalists to clearly see that the work that they previously thought could only be done by geniuses earning 300 yuan a week can now be done by a housewife with a high school diploma with just a little training using our software. It is nothing more than simple spreadsheet or typing, which requires no technical skills. It is more difficult for a housewife to cook dinner for two children than this job."
Eric sat back in front of the computer, picked up the notebook that Tommy had used to record various test data, looked at the densely packed text, and said, "So this is the selling point you'll tell those big companies when you're ready to market this software after you've completed the development? An improved version of Louts plus WordStar?"
"No, I didn't think of selling it to big companies by advertising in professional computer magazines. I actually wanted to set a suitable price and fool those housewives who are eager to make some money, telling them that they can earn the same weekly salary as white-collar elites. As long as they are willing to buy and learn our relatively simple software, and learn it, then when they want to find a job, they don't have to think about being a waitress in a fast food restaurant, but can wear a decent dress and go to various companies for interviews. Maybe they can help law firms process various contract documents, or help accounting firms process various financial statements and other decent jobs. Yes, with these two functions, document processing and spreadsheet processing, there is one less than Louts1-2-3. I visited ten alumni companies in Silicon Valley last Saturday to conduct a survey and found that the ten companies have a total of 320 office computers, and 87% of the computers mainly use these two office software. Every company needs people to process a large number of documents and spreadsheets." Tommy said to Eric:
“You just asked me the purpose of doing this? My goal is to turn this seemingly high-end job into a popular skill that everyone can master, and make some money from it. But first, I need your help to help me realize these functions.”
"No, you have to help us win the rookie championship tonight, Tommy the Maggot." The rookie supervisor appeared outside Eric's room at this time. After hearing Tommy's last words, he said, "You said you have good table tennis skills, right? So I signed you up for Ping Pong Vodka."
