4 ms·

Assuming you need to tip (and given that 97% of riders tip, it seems like you do), not having to calculate the amount is clearly a benefit. The author didn't ju

Assuming you need to tip (and given that 97% of riders tip, it seems like you do), not having to calculate the amount is clearly a benefit. The author didn't just make up that $1 value, it's derived from the situations in which riders choose a custom tip instead of using a default option.

LegitShady 5y ago
>not having to calculate the amount is clearly a benefit. Why? Calculating a tip isn't something that has a failure state because even if you give the wrong amount it won't matter. On top of that the exercise of calculating the tip is beneficial for your long term mental acuity. I'm not sure why doing a simple calculation that doesn't benefit me and has no failure state is a benefit. It's a benefit for the tippee maybe, but not the tipper.
- celtain 5y ago
  Doing work incorrectly is still doing work. The presence or absence of a failure state doesn't matter, what matters is the time and mental effort you have to expend. It's not a lot of effort, but $1 also isn't a lot of money. >On top of that the exercise of calculating the tip is beneficial for your long term mental acuity. If you can honestly say that you think most people enjoy doing math, I don't know what to tell you.
  - fshbbdssbbgdd 5y ago
    The machine should allow people who don’t like doing mental math to select from some pre-calculated numbers, then also give the option of playing a mini game that presents the user with math problems, riddles, visual logic puzzles, and memory tests. This will generate millions of dollars in expected utility, so the taxi companies are morally obligated to do it.
    - celtain 5y ago
      I don't understand how "replacing a manual process with an automated one provides positive value" is a controversial opinion on hacker news.
      - LegitShady 5y ago
        It doesn't provide $1 worth of value to anyone but some of the highest earners for whom such a "time savings" of seconds might be valuable. It's primary value is to the person being rolled because they aren't paying for anything. Automating something people weren't getting laid to do provides value to someone else not the person paying. Maybe it's not controversial so much as misguided and looking at the picture from the wrong perspective. Who is it providing value to? What did that person save through the automation and how much is that worth if you actually parse out how many such "value periods" they experience in a day. The idea that a very simple division question is worth $1 when everyone has a cell phone they already paid for in their pocket to do division for them is ludicrous when you realize there are tens of thousands of such time periods in a day but very few people are making tens of thousands of dollars a day.
  - LegitShady 5y ago
    Taking 10 or 15 percent of a number even if you get it wrong is not difficult and does not take any appreciable time. If you assign that 1 dollar to every instant of every day you will not find a real daily value for your time. The idea of $1. Ring appropriate is crazy. Let's say you took 10 seconds to calculate it which is generous and also time to lunch it into a phone. There would be more than 36 thousand of such time/labour units in a given twenty four hour period. Unless you hang around with CEO's you aren't making 36 thousand a day to hand it out so easily. $1 for nothing or value is a lot ofoney.
beezle 5y ago
If it takes you 30 seconds to calculate the tip that $1 is at a $120/hour rate. Most people don't take home that amount ($250k/year). Would hope most people could do the math in under 15 seconds as well, doubling that rate. A far more reasonable "value" would be 10 cents.

LegitShady 5y ago

>not having to calculate the amount is clearly a benefit. Why? Calculating a tip isn't something that has a failure state because even if you give the wrong amount it won't matter. On top of that the exercise of calculating the tip is beneficial for your long term mental acuity. I'm not sure why doing a simple calculation that doesn't benefit me and has no failure state is a benefit. It's a benefit for the tippee maybe, but not the tipper.

celtain 5y ago
Doing work incorrectly is still doing work. The presence or absence of a failure state doesn't matter, what matters is the time and mental effort you have to expend. It's not a lot of effort, but $1 also isn't a lot of money. >On top of that the exercise of calculating the tip is beneficial for your long term mental acuity. If you can honestly say that you think most people enjoy doing math, I don't know what to tell you.
- fshbbdssbbgdd 5y ago
  The machine should allow people who don’t like doing mental math to select from some pre-calculated numbers, then also give the option of playing a mini game that presents the user with math problems, riddles, visual logic puzzles, and memory tests. This will generate millions of dollars in expected utility, so the taxi companies are morally obligated to do it.
  - celtain 5y ago
    I don't understand how "replacing a manual process with an automated one provides positive value" is a controversial opinion on hacker news.
    - LegitShady 5y ago
      It doesn't provide $1 worth of value to anyone but some of the highest earners for whom such a "time savings" of seconds might be valuable. It's primary value is to the person being rolled because they aren't paying for anything. Automating something people weren't getting laid to do provides value to someone else not the person paying. Maybe it's not controversial so much as misguided and looking at the picture from the wrong perspective. Who is it providing value to? What did that person save through the automation and how much is that worth if you actually parse out how many such "value periods" they experience in a day. The idea that a very simple division question is worth $1 when everyone has a cell phone they already paid for in their pocket to do division for them is ludicrous when you realize there are tens of thousands of such time periods in a day but very few people are making tens of thousands of dollars a day.
- LegitShady 5y ago
  Taking 10 or 15 percent of a number even if you get it wrong is not difficult and does not take any appreciable time. If you assign that 1 dollar to every instant of every day you will not find a real daily value for your time. The idea of $1. Ring appropriate is crazy. Let's say you took 10 seconds to calculate it which is generous and also time to lunch it into a phone. There would be more than 36 thousand of such time/labour units in a given twenty four hour period. Unless you hang around with CEO's you aren't making 36 thousand a day to hand it out so easily. $1 for nothing or value is a lot ofoney.

beezle 5y ago

If it takes you 30 seconds to calculate the tip that $1 is at a $120/hour rate. Most people don't take home that amount ($250k/year). Would hope most people could do the math in under 15 seconds as well, doubling that rate. A far more reasonable "value" would be 10 cents.