Building off of the presentation on Tuesday about reusable bags, this article talks about another individual who decided to try and make a dent in plastic bag use by creating high end designer style reusable bags.  I personally like the idea presented in class much more, because the idea in the article doesn’t address the huge problem of constantly forgetting to bring your bags to the store.  However, it looks like the creator of the company is currently in 28 stores so apparently there is a market on the high-end range of this issue as well.

Like many others have said, I think the presentation about the homelessness project was wonderful. A couple things that stood out to me were the commitment to make an individual investment in people and realizing that not everyone can be helped. I believe it likely takes that type of commitment, and hopefully when there are success stories, those can help those that are still in bad situations. The individual sacrifice and commitment aspect reminded me of the specialness of Notre Dame – it truly represented selflessness, and commitment. Another good point was made – that these people are surviving. If they can get help, they easily might have several good qualities to bring to their new contributing societal role.

The link I provided below is to a national homelessness organization. One thing I was thinking about as the presentation was being given was whether it might be possible to communicate across borders and even transport participants, if there was work in other areas. It does seem like certain jobs are becoming more open than in years past – generally lower-level paying jobs. That could be a good start and being able to move where the work is might be beneficial.

Regardless, that was a really good presentation based in selflessness. Nice job.

link: http://nationalhomeless.org/

It seems that many startup theories, most prominently the lean startup method, almost embrace failure. Thus, I got the impression that in these theories and entrepreneurial “handbooks,” fear of failure does not seem to have much room. This article, however, points out that fear is not only something every entrepreneur most likely will have, but also something that can be a strongly motivating force. Thus, the existence of should not necessarily be neglected or ignored. I found that this recognition might be useful for those of us who will in fact become entrepreneurs themselves, thereby most likely being confronted with the fear to fail. I especially liked that the article acknowledges the fact that, despite all efforts from various theories and motivation coaches, we all will likely be afraid when becoming entrepreneurs. In addition, I found the article’s specific techniques for dealing with fear very helpful:

– Try to limit the impact of emotions and stress on decisions by being self-aware of feelings and moods intruding into your consciousness.

– Take anxiety as a motivator to proactively seeking out flaws and weaknesses in your business idea and take this action-centered approach to avoid inhibition.

– Gain new knowledge to decrease fear and doubts by increasing your own capabilities.

– Seek support (for example from mentors).

I found our discussion on the effects of artificial intelligence on the legal profession very interesting. Personally, I assume that the legal profession is less threatened by AI than other areas. This article gives one explanation for this. It reviews a book in which three economists argue that AI will, despite all current fears and expectations, mainly change and rationalize the way of making predictions but not provide a substitute for judgment. This argument would support the assumption that AI might—to some extent—put the jobs of paralegals and other research-focused professions at risk, but not the jobs where judgment plays a prominent role. I would argue that lawyers need judgment in every instance when they assess the outcome of a case. Outcomes of cases are often based on multiple factors (political opinions of judges, individual preferences of jury members, and so forth), which cannot all be translated into numbers that could be analyzed by a machine. Thus, I believe that the judgments of lawyers, based on their experience, are not likely to be replaced by AI.

After the S.E.R.V.E. presentation today, I was interested to look around and see if I could find any other organizations that provide comparable services. Among the other options, Boston has had an organization called “Friends of Boston’s Homeless” since 1995. The organization provides “vocational training,. . . [and placement to] carry [people] into independent employment in the community.” Furthermore, they claim that “72% of participants into permanent competitive employment and permanent housing in the community.”

I believe that the proposal from today’s presentation was well considered and could bear more success than this organization, but I was happy to see that others have tackled the issue of homelessness through a similar lens.

Here is a link to the site: https://www.fobh.org/what-we-support/job-training/

In the ongoing power struggle between tech and government, here is an excellent article from my favorite daily news source (Axios, which is innovative in it’s own right). This article gives great insight to the ideological divide between lawmakers and tech titans. One of the things that has struck me about this showdown is the thought divide – tech doesn’t understand government, and vice versa.

As our course wraps up, I have been reflecting on the past semester and the ways we have been challenged to think differently about the law and our professions. My former employer, an alternative legal services provider, has been building a business in leveraging Artificial Intelligence to help large financial institutions manage their large contract portfolios in the wake of Brexit. In the article below, one of my former colleagues explains how Artificial Intelligence can be leveraged in a transactional setting to organize and manage a large volume of documents or to visualize contract terms, including those that need to be renegotiated or updated, as well as finding similar contract terms across a portfolio of contracts.

Per the article, here is one way the AI can be applied: “A single document for a bank is usually a series of inter-related documents including amendments, schedules, and appendices. AI can search, read and understand how those documents are created, cutting out thousands of manual hours.”

Also: “AI can also understand what is in contracts, which clauses need to be updated and what sort of update is required.”

The article also points out that “traditional law firms were increasingly using AI, [but] they tended to overlay it onto ‘legacy ways of handling legal work’, which could produce an ‘uncomfortable combination.'”

See the article here: https://www.legalfutures.co.uk/latest-news/axiom-launches-brexit-ai-product-to-help-companies-update-7-5m-contracts

I love this article about the usefulness of attending conferences, where you’re able to meet (in person) many of the individuals within your industry you might never otherwise be able to rub elbows with.

I like the authors comment on the ridiculous prize attached to having a booth at one of these fairs (it’s always ridiculous) but I think the takeaway for us, as students, is that we should be attending the conferences available to us now, while student prices are fairly reasonable (also you can usually volunteer for free admission).

Here’s actually a list of a ridiculous amount of legal conferences that are hosted worldwide, I’m going to the Cybersecurity summit this summer for free in return for volunteering (great deal!) So go out, network, and engage your entrepreneurial side.

http://www.legalscholarshipblog.com/category/type/conferences/

Given the interest on National Park fees in the blog since our presentation last week, I thought I would provide a few additional updates that I’ve noticed in the news over the past week regarding fees at sites managed by the National Park Service.

-It was recently announced that some military parks would increase their fees from $7 to $10 per person in 2020: http://nooga.com/215930/national-park-services-plans-increase-in-park-fees-starting-in-2020/

-Fees at the James A. Garfield Historic Site will also be increased from $7 to $10: http://www.news-herald.com/article/HR/20180422/NEWS/180429825

-The Assateague Island National Seashore in Maryland will double its entrance fees from $5 to $10: https://www.delmarvanow.com/story/news/local/maryland/2018/04/24/assateague-island-national-seashore-per-person-entrance-fees-double/543743002/

-Finally, there currently is a public comment period regarding Oregon Cave National Monument and Preserve regarding visitor experience and potential changes that will take place at the park. Here is a link to an article with more, and the article also contains a link to the public comment webpage if you are interested in seeing what that process looks like or providing a comment yourself: https://kobi5.com/news/the-national-park-service-seeking-input-from-the-public-75942/

 

According to this article, there’s still hope for those of us who haven’t successful incorporated and exited their own business.

“According to a working paper from MIT Sloan professor Pierre Azoulay and Ph.D. student Daniel Kim, the average age of entrepreneurs who’ve started companies and gone on to hire at least one employee, is 42 years old.”

Rejoice! but seriously, what’s the best marker for success? According to this study — it’s previous experience in the field. Experience trumps a formal education, previously held wealth, everything — I thought this quote was great as it truly exemplifies how we should approach the world (particularly as man individuals in our class are about to graduate).

“… there is this social perspective that you should be an entrepreneur right now, rethink that, because you might have a great idea but you might not have the right skills or experience to really propel that idea,” Kim said. “Think about career paths as options, not just as absolute paths.”Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-04-year-old-entrepreneur-myth.html#jCp