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My personal theory is that TaskRabbit is too general purpose for people to think to use it. When I am at a bar and want to be at my house, it's really easy for

My personal theory is that TaskRabbit is too general purpose for people to think to use it. When I am at a bar and want to be at my house, it's really easy for me to think of an app that will solve my problem. If I don't have time to assemble the elaborate toy train set I bought for my kid, it will probably never occur to me that I could pay someone to drop in and do that task for me, even if I would happily pay someone if they offered.

24gttghh 9y ago
Why are people so damned busy they couldn't build a train set with their kid? That would be fun as all hell. I am not trying to blame you specifically, as I'm guessing you meant it as an example.
jacquesm 9y ago
> If I don't have time to assemble the elaborate toy train set I bought for my kid, it will probably never occur to me that I could pay someone to drop in and do that task for me, even if I would happily pay someone if they offered. That's the kind of problem nobody should ever have in the first place. The whole point is to work together on it, not just to give it. To have some stranger put it together defeats the purpose.
- rm_-rf_slash 9y ago
  Unless they wanted to dress up in a three piece suit with a top hat and smoke a cigar while they watch the train set being assembled in order to live out some kind of bizarre railroad executive fantasy possibly inspired by too many re-reads of Atlas Shrugged. Point is, the purpose of toys is to have fun. I wouldn't regard my example to be any different than spending one's disposable income on a trip to Vegas or a VR headset.
  - ribosometronome 9y ago
    Who didn't aspire to be the Fat Controller when watching Thomas the Tank Engine?
- smelendez 9y ago
  I think that's not contradicting OP's point. It's a "long tail" type of problem--nobody's going to buy a Super Bowl ad for Uber for model train assembly. Not even every model train buyer wants it. (Incidentally, I can think of plenty of situations where you would give a child a model train and not be willing or able to assemble it and still have it be a net gain for the kid).
ghaff 9y ago
I also just don't have that many one-off tasks around home that are -- Big enough to be worth getting someone to do for me -- A task that I can have someone do for me with fairly simple instructions -- Something I'm willing to pay someone else to do for me I already have a lawn service and an occasional housekeeper and borrow a neighbor's handyman [for brush clearing] from time to time. But most of the "wouldn't it be nice is this were all organized/cleaned" stuff around my house aren't really things I could delegate. I also just don't seem to live in a critical mass area for TaskRabbit. Just did a search for a handyman and one came up at $90/hr and a 71% positive rating. I think I'll pass.
arkades 9y ago
My personal issue with TR was price. Not that it was priced outside my ability to afford, but that it was priced out of the range of what is reasonable for the tasks that I would entrust to a never-met-before contractor. Eg, in a time-critical emergency I once paid a TR $45 to pick up a book from a store and bring it to a relative nearby, once (lots of context, just go with it.) But let's be honest: it's a rare, rare event that someone is going to pay $45 for non-skilled, essentially un-fuckup-able jobs. If TR was "hire a spare set of hands for minimum wage when needed, with quality reviews", sure, I could think of lots of use cases. But paying more than triple minimum wage for a minimum wage task? It's just rare that the situation merits that sort of over-spending.

24gttghh 9y ago

Why are people so damned busy they couldn't build a train set with their kid? That would be fun as all hell. I am not trying to blame you specifically, as I'm guessing you meant it as an example.

jacquesm 9y ago

> If I don't have time to assemble the elaborate toy train set I bought for my kid, it will probably never occur to me that I could pay someone to drop in and do that task for me, even if I would happily pay someone if they offered. That's the kind of problem nobody should ever have in the first place. The whole point is to work together on it, not just to give it. To have some stranger put it together defeats the purpose.

rm_-rf_slash 9y ago
Unless they wanted to dress up in a three piece suit with a top hat and smoke a cigar while they watch the train set being assembled in order to live out some kind of bizarre railroad executive fantasy possibly inspired by too many re-reads of Atlas Shrugged. Point is, the purpose of toys is to have fun. I wouldn't regard my example to be any different than spending one's disposable income on a trip to Vegas or a VR headset.
- ribosometronome 9y ago
  Who didn't aspire to be the Fat Controller when watching Thomas the Tank Engine?
smelendez 9y ago
I think that's not contradicting OP's point. It's a "long tail" type of problem--nobody's going to buy a Super Bowl ad for Uber for model train assembly. Not even every model train buyer wants it. (Incidentally, I can think of plenty of situations where you would give a child a model train and not be willing or able to assemble it and still have it be a net gain for the kid).

ghaff 9y ago

I also just don't have that many one-off tasks around home that are -- Big enough to be worth getting someone to do for me -- A task that I can have someone do for me with fairly simple instructions -- Something I'm willing to pay someone else to do for me I already have a lawn service and an occasional housekeeper and borrow a neighbor's handyman [for brush clearing] from time to time. But most of the "wouldn't it be nice is this were all organized/cleaned" stuff around my house aren't really things I could delegate. I also just don't seem to live in a critical mass area for TaskRabbit. Just did a search for a handyman and one came up at $90/hr and a 71% positive rating. I think I'll pass.

arkades 9y ago

My personal issue with TR was price. Not that it was priced outside my ability to afford, but that it was priced out of the range of what is reasonable for the tasks that I would entrust to a never-met-before contractor. Eg, in a time-critical emergency I once paid a TR $45 to pick up a book from a store and bring it to a relative nearby, once (lots of context, just go with it.) But let's be honest: it's a rare, rare event that someone is going to pay $45 for non-skilled, essentially un-fuckup-able jobs. If TR was "hire a spare set of hands for minimum wage when needed, with quality reviews", sure, I could think of lots of use cases. But paying more than triple minimum wage for a minimum wage task? It's just rare that the situation merits that sort of over-spending.