Things People Actually Do

I have a notebook where I write down things people are doing now that they couldn't do five years ago. I started it out of curiosity more than anything else. Just a way to track changes.

Last month I reached a hundred entries. They all involve some form of newer technology, though the technology itself isn't really the point. The point is what people choose to do with it.

I sat down and read through the whole thing from the beginning. Patterns emerged I had not noticed while I was writing.

The first few pages are full of things related to writing. People taking old drafts, transcripts, even handwritten notes and turning them into something structured. Not necessarily books or articles. Sometimes just collections for other people who share the same odd interests.

I know someone who recorded himself talking about his years working in a niche manufacturing job. Just voice memos. He ran them through a tool and ended up with a guide he sells on a small website. It does not make him rich. But it pays for his weekend habits.

Another section of the notebook is filled with visual things. Photographs, mostly. People I know who had boxes of old family photos. They scanned them, used tools to restore or improve them, and now sell prints or digital copies to distant relatives they never met. It is a strange kind of business. Very small. Very personal.

There is a woman in Chicago who takes old architectural drawings from her grandfather's firm and sells them as digital downloads. Designers buy them. Also some university students. She told me she spends an hour a week on it and it covers her property taxes.

The audio and music related ideas surprised me. People recording ambient sound from their windows and selling it as background noise. Someone I follow online takes old cassette tapes from garage sales, cleans up the audio, and makes playlists for niche audiences. There is a market for everything apparently.

I met a man last year who makes custom ringtones. Not for companies. Just for individuals. He uses tools to generate sounds based on people's descriptions. He said he does three or four a week. Charges seventy five dollars each.

Some ideas are about translation. Not just language translation. Translation of ideas from one form to another. A friend takes dense academic papers and turns them into simple summaries for people who want to understand the gist without the jargon. She started doing it for herself. Now she has a small list of subscribers who pay for access.

Another person I came across online takes old public domain books and creates new covers for them. Then sells them as print on demand. No inventory. No shipping. Just a storefront that processes orders when they come in.

The list goes on. People creating custom workout plans based on equipment people already have at home. Someone who generates meal plans from random ingredients people type into a form. A man who makes personalized bedtime stories for children using their names and favorite animals. He charges five dollars each and says he does about thirty a day.

The ones that stick with me are not the big money makers. They are the small ones. The person who sells custom cross stitch patterns based on ugly family pet photos. The guy who generates trivia questions for pub quiz hosts every week. The woman who makes personalized horoscopes based on life events rather than birth dates.

None of these require a team. Or an office. Or even much time. They are just things people started doing because they could.

I think about that sometimes. How the barrier keeps getting lower. Not just for making things, but for selling them too. A store can be a single page. A product can be a file. A customer can be someone who finds you through a search.

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