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"Web surfing for money" was pretty lame. But inspiring people to get off their ass and walk around with rewards seems nice whether it's financial rewards or to
by hombre_fatal 5y ago
"Web surfing for money" was pretty lame. But inspiring people to get off their ass and walk around with rewards seems nice whether it's financial rewards or to catch pokemon.
A simple UI on my phone that tells me how many steps I have and a progress bar was enough to make me religious about getting my 10k steps each day, and it's been nothing but a good thing in my life. I even got my girlfriend addicted.
We'll take a walk to the grocery store together to buy a pineapple, just for the steps.
- Nextgrid 5y ago"inspiring people to get off their ass and walk around" is nice. Conning them into believing the app is after their well-being while stalking them in the background and selling their personal data is scummy.
- hombre_fatal 5y agoWell, there's nothing that's truly after your well-being except you and your loved ones. Not even my local gym nor Youtube workout videos nor my $1 pedometer phone app is after my well-being. Our incentives simply align. I want to exercise more, they want to sell me something that I want to use. Everyone is free to do push-ups and run at their own leisure without giving money to anyone else. Unfortunately most of us have trouble with that. It seems too much to call something a "con" if it can compel someone to improve their health just because it's transactional. If someone can figure out how to make money from compelling people to exercise, I think it's a net positive. At least it's certainly better than all the money being made by compelling people to indulge in habits that are bad for them, which seems like just about everything.