When I was in high school in the 90s, and just discovering the world of money and finance, I stumbled on Alan Greenspan and instantly liked some of his thinking about it. I tried my best to learn from everything he did, read every news article I could find, followed rates, the economics of money, the impact on markets, and more. I learned more about government politics and money and influence from that experience than I have since! I'll admit that my mindset about the Fed and money in general is very much due to what I learned in those impressionable years.

I’m trying to privately build a public library in a rural Idaho community. Borrowing sewing machines has been a popular request, as soon as we have space for them. It’s exciting to see that it’s a worldwide desire and not just a rural trend. Very cool to read about how Finland is doubling down on investing in libraries and skill building tools like sewing machines!

How are you going about this? Asking because I thought about doing something similar (e.g., Makerspaces, hackerspaces, Fab Labs).

Luckily a few others here in Idaho have done it by way of a Friends of the Library official non-profit 501(c)(3), so I have a model to follow that works in our region and for our rural conservative conditions. The standard non-profit benefits apply: we apply for a lot of grants, we set up endowments, accept land or stock as gifts, take on capital projects like building a library. The public library can then lease from us (probably for $0) or if we put a large enough endowment fund together we would very much consider taking it all private vs just a purpose built building for the library.

I’m not a lawyer but trademark isn’t just searching TESS right? It’s overly broad but the question I ask myself when naming projects (all small / inconsequential in the general business sense but meaningful to me and my teams) is: will the general public confuse my name with a similar company name in a direct or tangentially related industry or niche? If yes, try a different name… or weigh the risks of having a legal expense later and go for it if worth the risk.

In this instance, I wonder if the general public know OpenAI and might think anything ai related with “Open” in the name is part of the same company? And is OpenAI protecting its name?

There’s a lot more to trademark law, too. There’s first use in commerce, words that can’t be marked for many reasons… and more that I’ll never really understand.

Regardless the name, I am looking forward to testing this on cloudflare! I’m a fan of the project!

Software is absurd, indeed. I don’t write code but I feel similar about digital and the Internet as a whole because my career is here… so I went back to a hobby of pre-computer automotive restoration. I do it for me, so I haven’t switched careers. I don’t want the same burnout with my hobby. Instead, I find a bit of balance for myself by working on a machine in my garage instead of going from my day job to my mobile device for videos or social networks.

I'm helping a friend sell their farm's ancient grain production online since they have a mill on their farm. They grow and sell spelt, emmer, einkorn, and other types of grain. Our family farm is considering planting and producing those grains, too.

Also building an outsourced, full-time, subscription-based digital marketer staffing / agency hybrid at GruntWorkers.com.

I used to run a local web marketing meetup in East Idaho. It grew to about 260 people! We used meetup.com and I loved that...

Then I discovered that Facebook Groups and setting up events there worked just as well for us. RSVPs, reminders, notifications, etc all built in.

I since retired that meetup due to moving out of the State for a short time, but if I were to start again I would probably still use Facebook.

This reminds me of a book called The Power of Starting Something Stupid, by Richie Norton. The book tells several stories just like this one, where it seems like peers or others are criticizing your work as “stupid” but you get it done anyways because you know it is worthwhile, then finally the world rewards you handsomely for it.

I up-vote the stories I intend to use or share with others in the future. These stories usually resonate with me on some level so I find myself reading significantly more stories than ever actually up-voting them.

If you have time, I highly recommend reading The 1% Windfall by Rafi Mohammed[1].

There are dozens of pricing options in the book; however, Rafi's favored model is: try to set a price based on the value the buyer receives.

In your case, it sounds like you are the buyer because you built something that fixes a problem you had. If the pricing is something you will pay, then you're probably in the ballpark with your prices.

Have you surveyed other theme/module sellers to determine the value a service like yours would provide to them? Using your scenario, will other sellers value (pay) for your service at the equivalent of 2 sales/month for the Pro plan and 4-6 for the Platinum? Will you pay that much to a competitor if they build a similar business?

Good luck with your product! If I were a theme or module seller, it looks like something I might try because as a regular theme and module buyer, nothing frustrates me more than to click a demo link only to find demos that do not exist anymore. I almost never buy a theme or module that I can't demo first.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/The-1-Windfall-Successful-Companies/dp...

This post is giving me a lot of reading! All of them are interesting, I just miss the time ;)

Your last line is a great motivation for me, thank you very much for that.

I think I'll prepare a survey/discussion about the pricing by contacting some ThemeForest sellers, I just need to find the good introduction email for that :)