Winter break is now over and the second semester has begun. As a senior who has already sent in my applications I have had a major source of stress removed. This semester should be a lot of fun and hopefully way more relaxed than the first semester. I am personally very excited for Shakespeare DTASC, which is a acting competition held in the Spring. This year I'll hopefully be doing a monologue which will give me an opportunity to have my acting evaluated on a personal level. As I'm not in an acting class this year it also gives me a great opportunity to socialize with all my friends from theatre. The event is a full day long and it's a real blast.
With the start of the new semester also comes the Capstone project for engineering. My group is focusing the problem of disinformation. Disinformation is an incredibly large and complicated problem, so while I think it will be possible to address aspects of the problem whatever solution we end up coming up with will be far from comprehensive. Determining which aspect of disinformation we want to address will be one of our challenges.
Just like companies, products can be divided into for profit and non-profit. Products that are made with profit in mind were made to address a specific, somewhat trivial, problem with the expectation that people would pay for that solution. If they are highly specific issues that might cost a lot to make up for the small market, and if it's a general problem than they could be cheaper to encourage people to buy it. Products made without profit in mind, made to benefit others, can either be made for and paid by public entities like cities, or they could be products that are made for very important pressing issues.
Making products for profit is great if the person making them is interested in profit. Beyond that if a designer has an idea for product that is clearly a non essential item they have to lean towards profit. However, making products for profit can lead to a lack motivation for the completion because the product can be without a greater purpose. The iPhone is a great example of a product made for profit because while it can be argued that phones are essential items people pay more money for the increased functionality of the iPhone. Products made for the benefit of others can be a more secure stream of funds like in the case of contracts with the government, but can lack the sometimes insane profit margins of products made for profit. An example of a product made for the benefit of others is a water fountain as they are put around public areas for people to use for free and provide an essential item like water.