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And contracting in a high-paying field like software development is one thing. Contracting for low-skill labor through a marketplace like Uber, TaskRabbit, Han

And contracting in a high-paying field like software development is one thing. Contracting for low-skill labor through a marketplace like Uber, TaskRabbit, Handy, etc. provides even less opportunity for any sort of career development.

RationPhantoms 9y ago
I feel an odd magnetic sway towards the future envisioned in Neil Stephenson's "Snow Crash" where the gig-economy IS the economy.
- wavefunction 9y ago
  What could be more alluring, living in a shipping container in one of the shanty slums most of Snow Crash's people live in or being one of the lucky few to live in a corporate enclave? I'm just glad we're going to have the opportunity to live in a cyber-punk dystopia!!!
  - logfromblammo 9y ago
    The best kind of dystopia! Better than a fascist totalitarian surveillance state dystopia, anyway. Or at least it is for the people that can hack the cyber-stuff to get at the sweet cyber-juice inside. I can't wait to get my first neuro-implant, and to crash my first 747 filled with telephone books into my brain.
  - creaghpatr 9y ago
    I just started reading Snow Crash, really loving it.
    - s73ver_ 9y ago
      Read The Diamond Age afterward. It's not exactly a sequel, but all indications seem to show that it takes place in the same world, a couple decades later.
      - Fnoord 9y ago
        Approx 80-100 years according to Wikipedia [1]. Though no source is cited. The world of Snow Crash, where a few corporations own the entire world with a very tiny government, is also the basis of the book Jennifer Government [2] by Max Barry. I found that book a bit easier to read. Diamond Age, I can't get through it yet. Cryptonomicon, also by Neil Stephenson is on my list, as well as Neuromancer by Gibson. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Diamond_Age#Snow_Crash https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Diamond_Age#Snow_Crash [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_Government https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_Government
    - scottlegrand2 9y ago
      Soon to be a TV series... http://deadline.com/2017/09/ringworld-lazarus-snow-crash-amazon-genre-drama-series-push-1202179073/ http://deadline.com/2017/09/ringworld-lazarus-snow-crash-ama...
mcv 9y ago
Exactly. I'm doing quite well, but I notice that the people remodelling my house make only half my hourly rate. One of them got injured on his motorbike and turns out not to have a disability insurance, because that insurance is way too expensive in his line of work.

RationPhantoms 9y ago

I feel an odd magnetic sway towards the future envisioned in Neil Stephenson's "Snow Crash" where the gig-economy IS the economy.

wavefunction 9y ago
What could be more alluring, living in a shipping container in one of the shanty slums most of Snow Crash's people live in or being one of the lucky few to live in a corporate enclave? I'm just glad we're going to have the opportunity to live in a cyber-punk dystopia!!!
- logfromblammo 9y ago
  The best kind of dystopia! Better than a fascist totalitarian surveillance state dystopia, anyway. Or at least it is for the people that can hack the cyber-stuff to get at the sweet cyber-juice inside. I can't wait to get my first neuro-implant, and to crash my first 747 filled with telephone books into my brain.
- creaghpatr 9y ago
  I just started reading Snow Crash, really loving it.
  - s73ver_ 9y ago
    Read The Diamond Age afterward. It's not exactly a sequel, but all indications seem to show that it takes place in the same world, a couple decades later.
    - Fnoord 9y ago
      Approx 80-100 years according to Wikipedia [1]. Though no source is cited. The world of Snow Crash, where a few corporations own the entire world with a very tiny government, is also the basis of the book Jennifer Government [2] by Max Barry. I found that book a bit easier to read. Diamond Age, I can't get through it yet. Cryptonomicon, also by Neil Stephenson is on my list, as well as Neuromancer by Gibson. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Diamond_Age#Snow_Crash https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Diamond_Age#Snow_Crash [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_Government https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_Government
  - scottlegrand2 9y ago
    Soon to be a TV series... http://deadline.com/2017/09/ringworld-lazarus-snow-crash-amazon-genre-drama-series-push-1202179073/ http://deadline.com/2017/09/ringworld-lazarus-snow-crash-ama...

mcv 9y ago

Exactly. I'm doing quite well, but I notice that the people remodelling my house make only half my hourly rate. One of them got injured on his motorbike and turns out not to have a disability insurance, because that insurance is way too expensive in his line of work.