On Wednesday, while driving back from Peoria my daughter and I were discussing our experience on the Segway. Apparently, she enjoyed the Segway as much as I did. It was truly great fun.
She asked me: 'Instead of getting a car when I am 16, can I get a Segway?"
I do not know where she got the idea that she is getting a car, especially at 16.
I didn't (but I could've) asked: 'What color is the sky on your world?'
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Wednesday MENU
breakfast apples 216 calories
lunch Jason's Seafood Gumbo, Turkey sandwich, flatbreads 1041 calories
dinner Kale Crunch, dehydrated Okra, spinach salad 1796 calories
lunch Jason's Seafood Gumbo, Turkey sandwich, flatbreads 1041 calories
dinner Kale Crunch, dehydrated Okra, spinach salad 1796 calories
total calories consumed 3052 calories
calories burned
NO WORKOUT. I am not sure if my legs felt wobbly from the 90 minutes zipping around on the Segway. Perhaps, my legs were simply tired from too many consecutive days of working out. Perhaps I was just tired from a lack of sleep the past few days. Whatever the reason, I simply could not gather the willpower for a workout. Normally, it takes willpower for me to skip a workout.
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Wednesday net calories 3052 calories
from Forbes....
The Surprising Successor To The Segway That Could Revolutionize Urban Transportation
by Zack Schildhorn
Several years ago, I had the great fortune to interview famous inventor Dean Kamen. While his achievements are many (he holds over 440 patents, devised the wearable drug infusion pump, and founded one of the world’s largest youth science organizations), he is perhaps most widely recognized for his biggest flop: the Segway. Code-named “Ginger” during its secret development in the late 1990’s, this two-wheeled, self-balancing electric vehicle held the promise to revolutionize transportation and reshape entire cities. Famous venture capitalist John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins bankrolled the effort with close to $40 million at an unthinkable early valuation of half a billion dollars. Tech luminaries Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezosthought the idea worthy of an even more valuable investment: their time. Both met privately with Dean on numerous occasions to offer counsel and contemplate their involvement with the project (and would go on record affirming their excitement). When word of a wondrous new invention and its high-profile supporters leaked prematurely to the press, “IT” became the subject of rampant speculation and hype, the media sensation culminating in a live unveiling on national television. The Segway seemed on a fast path to be a very big deal.
In stark contrast to expectation, sales of the Segway were a massive disappointment. Now, more than a decade after its release, the product has been all but forgotten, relegated to niche uses like police patrols, city tours, and a nerdy take on polo. When I sat down with Dean and asked him what the world least understood about the Segway, he gave a surprising response. It wasn’t an excuse for failure, or, as might be expected of an engineer, a matter-of-fact list of reasons why the product really is so great. Rather, Dean passionately shared the vision that created so many early believers. This is the inspiring original idea behind the Segway that got buried amidst the cacophony of rumors and headlines and forgotten with the passing of time:
I don’t think people have yet come to grips with the fact that in most of the large cities of the world, almost everybody spends most of their time going just a few blocks, or at most a mile, between where they live and where they work. Yet, in almost every major city… all of what should be beautiful pedestrian space… is either a parked car, a parking garage, or a row of running cars, bumper to bumper, with people sucking up each other’s exhaust, creeping along in 3,000 pound, 20 foot vehicles with on average one person inside. It’s environmentally catastrophic, it’s inefficient, it’s unhealthy, and it defiles the original intent of cities. In a world now screaming towards urbanization… the idea that we still get around with a machine that was invented 100 years ago to get between towns and cities and to railroad stations seems absurd.
But what if you could say to people – “Hey, this environment in the city, it was built for pedestrians!” That’s why these buildings are close together, that’s why you look outside and see thousands of people. What if we could tell you that you could get from point A to point B in the city at the same average speed as your car, but with the same mobility as a pedestrian, in a manner 100 times more environmentally friendly, and close to 100 times as energy efficient? We thought that might make a big difference in helping cities become more fun, more environmentally friendly, cleaner, and safer. We thought it would be a big deal, and I still do.
It’s hard not to admire the boldness and authenticity of that vision, and I, like Dean, think it rings just as true today. While there are many reasons the Segway failed, perhaps the simplest explanation sums it up best. As noted by Silicon Valley investor Paul Graham: “people don’t want to be seen riding them.” Changing the world is never an easy undertaking—especially if nobody wants your product.
But big ideas die hard, and the story that inspired the Segway might be entering an exciting new chapter. As a venture capitalist I can tell you with certainty: if you ever want to know what the future holds, just follow the entrepreneurs. And right now, there is a whole cadre of talented technologists applying ingenuity and effort towards making this vision real. But unlike the Segway, they’re not starting from scratch. Rather, they’re building off the momentum of an unsuspected product that’s humbly but quickly reshaping city streets around the world: they’re reinventing the bicycle.
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