Interesting post. It seems the guy was inspired by the breakup with his girlfriend into putting the hours in. I would argue that initiative is as important as effort - no one wants the world to fall down around them in order to force them into action.
Good article with quite a list of 'free things'. Surprised it missed putting Skype on your mobile (cell phone) - especially useful for international collaborations.
if you did that, obese kids would be the norm, school (if kids went at all) would end up teaching the finer points of getting to the next level of supermario. Kids need guidance, but also a forum for innovation.
Creating amino acids isn't really has difficult as it was thought to be back in the 50's. Amino acids that aren't known on Earth have been found in various meteorites and the like. Although they can be considered bio-markers, they aren't very good ones.
A friend of mine once argued that alcohol boosted brain performance; it went something like this. Alcohol kills brain cells. Darwin's theory implies that the weakest and slowest to adapt will be the first to die out. Thus: Drinking alcohol kills weaker brain cells and boosts brain performance.
Does that mean that women are smarter than men because more of their braincells get killed (or shrunk) according to this research?
Surely taking the best of a lot ideas and putting them into one browser is a good thing. That's how processes become streamlined and businesses flourish.