First Kickstarter Pledge

I just pledged money toward this device.

I thought at first: why pledge money? I could just buy it when it comes out.

But then I thought, this is how I think products should be made. Rather than someone going to venture capitalists to get money, who expect to make 10x on their investment, causing weird incentives, since many cool ideas are really cool, but aren't going to take over the world, entrepreneurs can just ask for money in advance. If enough people like what they plan to build, then they can buy the product before it exists, and cause it to be created. And the entrepreneurs don't need to sell their souls. They just need to build the thing they said they'd build — no five year exponential growth plan, no pivoting, no desperation to sell the dying company. And if it turns out that the thing does explode into exponential goodness, the entrepreneur retains full control.

So, as an experiment, and somewhat against my nature, I'm being an activist, hoping against reason to nudge humanity microscopically closer to the direction I think it should be headed in.