Peer to Peer

The peer to peer marketplace has been taking off and seems to have a solid future with more and more people using these different services. The peer to peer marketplace offers different services that are cheap and convenient to the consumer but at the same time they are cutting out the middle man in the process. You can find these different services in transportation, renting, housing, skilled trades, and eventually just about anything. I am curious to see where this new marketplace will go. Will we eventually see businesses struggling due to the fact that they are trying to compete with these freelancers that don't have as high of overhead costs. Possibly, but at the same time i don't see them out preforming the cheap work/services that are being offered. It will be interesting to see where these new start up peer to peer businesses will be down the road. Do more choices make us better off? I will revisit this idea in blog posts to come.

Old v. New Designs

This past weekend i replaced the head gaskets on my truck. I would not say that i am mechanically
inclined but i do know how to figure things out with time and research. The reason i decided to do it myself was because the shop wanted $1200 to do it. There was no way i was going to pay that much for something that's worth $2400. So i went to the auto store grabbed a shop manual and a gasket kit for a 2000 ford ranger which in total costed me $260. The 2000 ranger has a very basic engine bay and most of everything is in plain site after popping open the hood. It has a very basic push rod motor design that has been used for a long time due to its reliability. After 2004 or so a lot of car manufactures started cramming a larger overhead cam designed engine into cars making it much more difficult to do work on it yourself. The whole process took me around 30 hours to do. The designs that new cars have now a days are cheaper and probably have a better use of materials but older designs are proven and allow the average person to figure them out and work on them. 

Buzzfeed page

5 quality hunting rifles for UNDER $400. MUST SEE

1.)  Marlin X7                                                                                              

The Marlin x7 is a fantastic hunting rifle that has the kind of quality and reliability you would expect from a $700+ rifle. You cant go wrong.

2.)  Savage Axis

The Savage Axis is a great entry level hunting rifle. It has a new modern feel and bolt design that won’t disappoint.

3.)  Ruger American

The Ruger American. One of the most popular hunting rifles out there and for a good reason.  

4.)  Remington 783

Remington is the leader in top of the line bolt-action technology. You get this proven design on a beautifully built affordable rifle. 

5.)  Mossberg 100ATR

ATR stands for All Terrain Rifle. Weighing in at just over 6.5 pounds, the 100atr makes for a great mountain rifle. With the many different caliber options and stock with iron sites, the 100atr does it all.

JJCB Building

As a class, we took a tour of the new JJCB building that is getting close to completion and will be open for classes for the 2015 fall semester. Fall semester will be my last so i am excited to be able to have a few classes in their before im done. The outside of the building looks very nice with most of the south facing side consisting of glass. The outside landscape is starting to take shape and seems like there will be lots of new trees around the building as well as some over the very large older trees that they were able to build around. When first walking into the building you enter a large common area with a fire place and cool looking staircase in the middle of the room leading up to class rooms and offices with large glass windows. The class rooms have sliding collapsible glass walls that allow each room to fully open up. Having lots of common areas as well as the collapsible walls and glass will allows for more contact with everyone in the building. I think this is a great building for the college of business because it will promote more creativity and cohesiveness within everyone in the building.

The idea that never materialized

Three summers ago i was taking my lunch break on a patio that we were working on. For lunch i had a turkey sandwich with plain chips and some Frito Lay con caso chip dip. As i was nearing the bottom of the dip jar i was getting frustrated with the amount of cheese i kept getting on my knuckles every time i would go in for more. After finishing lunch i got back to work. About an hour later i had one of those eureka moments. For some reason at that point of time i cam up with idea of having a threaded jar that would allow you to twist the bottom of the jar and push the contents inside the jar to the top. I thought this was a genius idea. When i got home i did a little research and found nothing like it. A weekend later i started doing research on how to thread the inside of a glass jar. This turned out to be a difficult process without having the necessary tools to do so. I wanted to make a prototype of the twist-able jar so that i could take the necessary steps at introducing my idea after getting it patented. With working 50 hours a week and taking a summer class my whole twisted jar idea put off to a later time and forgot about. This past fall i started thinking about it again and found out that someone had just patented a very similar idea. The product is called "Jar with a twist". Im still mad at myself for not getting on it sooner because this could have turned out to be a great opportunity. Next time i have another, eureka moment, i wont sit on it.

Cause v. Purpose

What is the difference between cause and purpose marketing? Never really gave much thought to this until it was brought up in class and it is important to be able to distinguish between the two. Cause marketing is more of a company deciding out of the blue to donate to a charity for whatever reason to help boost sales. Purpose marketing deals with a cause that is already "baked in" to what the company is all about. In the article Cause v. Purpose by Max Lenderman, Traction found that a majority of people support brands with a cause attached. Those same people are realizing that everybody is starting to do it which raises the question of the authenticity of it. Are those companies supporting different causes just to push their product? Or do they truly support something for the long run. As a consumer, it is always important to be aware of the different tactics businesses may use to draw you in.

Here is a different view point of a cause v. purpose related example. Steven Rinella is an avid outdoorsmen who hunts and fishes for a living by producing a television show on the sportsmens channel called meat eater and is also a writer who has published a number of books. Rinella is an advocate for raising the awareness of hunting and its importance to conservation and is a strong supporter of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP). The TRCP is a powerful group whose main purpose is to protect critial habitat and our public lands. Although Rinella is not a brand, he is in some regards a spokesman for the hunting community who believes in a cause that is directly related to everything he does in his show and writings.

Cost of Social Norms

Chapter 4 in the book predictably irrational is an interesting topic and is very true in my everyday life. We all operate under certain norms weather they are social or market (financially) oriented. Norms are what give us order and direction but both social and market norms can be taken very differently depending on the situation. Social norms have to do with what we personally believe is the right thing to do that is based on our values. Market norms are basically what you are willing to do for a certain amount of money.

The other day i helped a friend move from gateway to Bozeman. It was in the later afternoon and i had nothing going on so i was more than happy to help him out. The move only took us one trip and had all of his stuff moved into the new house. When we finished with the move he treated us to pizza and beer which is more than i could ask for in such a small task that took only took an hour or so. If he would of told me before hand that he was going to pay me $12 an hour, or whatever the rate, i would have immediately been thrown off by the money offer because i am acting under a social norm rather than a market norm and changes the whole reason of why i am helping him in the first place. The gesture of feeding me pizza and beer far outweighed the value of cash i could have made in this scenario.

Our perceptions can change dramatically depending on the situation at hand. If this were someone i was helping move on Craigslist my mind set would be totally different. I would be taking it as more of a "work" job rather than a "fun" job. When you are acting under a social norm you are less likely to consider it work and receiving things like dinner or a simple thank you are sufficient.