Author: kmikeym
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Re-Thinking the Game of Monopoly
It would be hard to simplify capitalism further than Monopoly. The game attempts to express the ruthlessness of raw capitalism by declaring that whoever has the most money at the “end” is the winner. While it’s true our culture proclaims the rich as our greatest heroes, the method of financial gain in Monopoly is not…
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Publicly Traded Person: The Man Who Sold Shares Of Himself
Mike Merrill is a the world’s first publicly traded person; he’s sold shares of himself and makes decisions based on the votes of his shareholders. Produced by Kristofor Lawson.
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The Critical FAQ
If you’ve ever received media attention you know how the internet will enable you to receive unsolicited critiques from strangers. While many people advise ignoring the comment section I like to embrace it. For example, after Rick Pace of Pace Photography wrote me some mean-spirited emails I asked if I could share our exchange and he agreed,…
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Meet the Man Who Sold His Fate to Investors at $1 a Share
On January 26, 2008, a 30-year-old part-time entrepreneur named Mike Merrill decided to sell himself on the open market. He divided himself into 100,000 shares and set an initial public offering price of $1 a share. Each share would earn a potential return on profits he made outside of his day job as a customer…
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Guerrilla Happy Hour
Economists will tell you that “incentives matter.” As an economic principle you want to find the smallest incentive to achieve the greatest possible outcome. This can be mathematically modeled for large populations to determine how to encourage prosocial behaviors, but how do you apply incentives to your personal life? Guerrilla Happy Hour has been an…