Not really the same thing, as that could cause death (or death-like symptoms).

This falls under the category of life lesson. Just like the iPhone trick.

If you search for "microwave iphone", at least you end up with some articles with evidence that people actually tried this.

The dice.com article doesn't even manage that.

How the hell does this company manage to make any money with this kind of ineptitude running the show?

The first link was to top projects, which is of interest.

The second link claimed "most successful", but was listed in descending amount of dollars raised starting around $12,000,000 (million). If that's the author's definition of 'successful', great. The indie projects I back typically have budgets in the 5-10k range and about 80% of them produce a finished work. Who is to say which is more successful?

sPh

- - - - - This is a site to donate money for people to do a cool project. If none of the projects are allowed to fail, it would only be really conservative projects. If you aren't willing to take that risk, don't fund a kickstarter. - - - - -

/\ This

I'm not complaining. You are: you are asking that the standards applicable to investment banking and venture capital be applied to what is intended to be the donation box at the community art collective where you take your kids for pottery lessons.

sPh

- - - - - why can't you get money from a bank or VC? - - - - -

Because not everything in the world is done in expectation of cash ROI? A good indie film will end up being shown at local and regional film festivals (and now, distributed as a DVD to Kickstarter backers). A _really_ good indie film will be invited to national and international film festivals - which will cost the producers money to attend (successful project with negative ROI). How does one obtain a bank loan or VC investment for such an endeavor?

People apparently think Kickstarter and the like are mini Sand Hill Roads, whereas they are much closer to you kicking in $50 to your local community art collective.

sPh

- - - - - - You are half way to being scammed. Little guys, indies, whatever they use to help sell you on their trustworthyness, That's part of what they are trying to sell you. Its a noble sentiment. But in investment, nobility has no place. They are there to make money, and that's it. - - - - -

It is not a well-received topic in Chicago-school microeconomics, but there are other human motivations besides desire to accumulate more personal wealth than anyone else (pure greed), and other rewards besides cash ROI. Kickstarter contributions are not "investments" in any meaningful sense and do not operate the same way that venture capital placements do. If you can't see the difference you probably shouldn't be contributing to the former or investing in the latter.

sPh

- - - - - if the project fails - - - - -

If the project fails due to fraud, yes. Realistically some percentage of all speculative projects (40%-90%), whether funded through Kickstarter or not, are going to fail. That doesn't mean they or their principals were committing fraud.

sPh

People should identify Kickstarter projects out of interest, enjoyment, or just a sense of fun, and contribute no more money than they would be willing to use as kindling to start a campfire. If you contribute $25 in hopes of seeing an indie film completed - great if it does, sad if it doesn't. If you contribute $100 hoping to get a new piece of hardware, don't expect anything other than some p% chance that you will ever receive that hardware or if you do it will work as dreamed. If you don't have the money to lose, don't contribute.

One innovative and clearly risky hardware project I backed has people complaining that the base product shipped 2 months later than planned (hoped) and the premium product will be 5 months late. Um, guys: it was risky. There were commercial alternatives available at 10x the price. You knew that this was an attempt to create a mini-breakthrough, but you're griping because it was 2 months late and the associated app will need some point revisions? Get real.

sPh

It appeared from the transition forward that Mr. Obama was (and presumably is) also deeply impressed by the big-time consulting culture (McKinsey and their ilk). That inclination tends not to go too well with a need to get actual work completed.

sPh

Comity. Cloture.

Wow - a very large attack of hard right wing hide raters today.

http://www.vox.com/cards/obama...

Americans who purchased coverage are paying for it (payment rates running a bit higher than privately-placed insurance, so yes "they paid for it"). Americans who could not previously afford any health insurance and therefore were essentially locked out from most health care are now being subsidized at a level about 40% of all the US' G8 peers. With that subsidy they are able to obtain reasonably-priced basic medical service thus greatly enriching their lives and - it is believed by 97.3% of health care economists - lowering the overall cost of medical care to the entire nation.

Your complaint is?

sPh

Can't help but noticing you left the duration out of those Breitbert-ized numbers.

You also ignored the cost of what happens if we _don't_ have 12 million people in reasonably-managed health insurance plans. While people in the US with no insurance plan may not get much care during their lives they usually get pulled into the standard system in their last years and generate huge costs - which could have been managed or avoided with lifelong basic health care. And of course there is the loss of productivity to the economy when people are unable to obtain basic medical care during the productive years of their lives.

Also about 1437 other factors you left out or simply put a hard right wing glibertarian spin on.

sPh

Fuzzy logic is logic. So are linear logic, intuitionistic logic, temporal logic, modal logic, and categorical logic. Just because you only learned Boolean logic doesn't mean there aren't well developed consistent logics beyond that. In practice bivalent logics are the exceptions.

- - - - - The Republicans forced no such thing. Not a single one of them voted for it. - - - - -

You really don't understand how the Senate works, do you?

sPh