4 ms·

The Faces of Mechanical Turk

48 points by tortilla 18y ago

bprater 18y ago
Brilliant. Love it!
- chime 18y ago
  I expect nothing less from Andy Baio. His panel at SXSW2008 was my favorite.
  - unalone 18y ago
    What did he do? Waxy is one of my favorite blogs. He's so consistently interesting.
    - waxpancake 18y ago
      The talk was called Worst Website Ever, a competition between eight very smart people trying to invent their worst possible startup idea: http://waxy.org/2008/03/worst_website_e_1/ http://waxy.org/2008/03/worst_website_e_1/ Needless to say, it was a blast. And thanks for the compliments, guys. Feel free to email/IM anytime.
      - unalone 18y ago
        That's an excellent idea. And, as an aside, I hope one day that I'm as interesting a writer as you are.
      - chime 18y ago
        Dunno if you remember me, I'm the good-looking half of Sched - Taylor's friend. Always wonderful to come across your projects.
      - ChaitanyaSai 18y ago
        Interesting that the two Indian faces there seem to be at the same location (look at the window pane tiling; one of those ubiquitous Indian internet cafes perhaps? Or a turk farm!?). Also, they look Malayali (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malayali http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malayali), but I could be wrong. It wouldn't be surprising if they were though. Kerala, the state from which they hail, has the highest literacy rate in the country. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerala http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerala
callmeed 18y ago
Very cool. Out of curiosity, can you actually make a decent/living wage being a turk?
- bigbang 18y ago
  In a "third world" country I guess.
  - DTrejo 18y ago
    Computers we throw away --> go to "third world" countries = our toxic trash problem solves & fewer poor people. The tough part is making it happen, something I'll have to think about.
    - DTrejo 18y ago
      YC readers are so encouraging.
- mseebach 18y ago
  As bigbang said, the third world. But more importantly, it allows people, also in the western world, to convert free time into some money. You might have a unchallenging 9-5 job, and easily have 5-6 hours to pass in the evenings. If you turk rather than watch bad TV and get a few extra dollars an hour, over a week, it's maybe $100/week extra to put away for something nice. Also, you can cancel the big cable package if you stop watching TV. Getting a night shift somewhere would probably pay more, but include bosses, annoying co-workers/customers, standing up, sweating, smelling like french fries etc. rather sitting in a nice chair, working at your own pace, with the TV on in the background, and being able to go call on your kids if you need to. In fact, min. wage minus sitter might be less than what you can get from turking.
- blasdel 18y ago
  No, but you can't make any money playing flash games
Dilpil 18y ago
Woah, this turk thing sounds awesome.

48 points by tortilla 18y ago

bprater 18y ago

Brilliant. Love it!

chime 18y ago
I expect nothing less from Andy Baio. His panel at SXSW2008 was my favorite.
- unalone 18y ago
  What did he do? Waxy is one of my favorite blogs. He's so consistently interesting.
  - waxpancake 18y ago
    The talk was called Worst Website Ever, a competition between eight very smart people trying to invent their worst possible startup idea: http://waxy.org/2008/03/worst_website_e_1/ http://waxy.org/2008/03/worst_website_e_1/ Needless to say, it was a blast. And thanks for the compliments, guys. Feel free to email/IM anytime.
    - unalone 18y ago
      That's an excellent idea. And, as an aside, I hope one day that I'm as interesting a writer as you are.
    - chime 18y ago
      Dunno if you remember me, I'm the good-looking half of Sched - Taylor's friend. Always wonderful to come across your projects.
    - ChaitanyaSai 18y ago
      Interesting that the two Indian faces there seem to be at the same location (look at the window pane tiling; one of those ubiquitous Indian internet cafes perhaps? Or a turk farm!?). Also, they look Malayali (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malayali http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malayali), but I could be wrong. It wouldn't be surprising if they were though. Kerala, the state from which they hail, has the highest literacy rate in the country. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerala http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerala

callmeed 18y ago

Very cool. Out of curiosity, can you actually make a decent/living wage being a turk?

bigbang 18y ago
In a "third world" country I guess.
- DTrejo 18y ago
  Computers we throw away --> go to "third world" countries = our toxic trash problem solves & fewer poor people. The tough part is making it happen, something I'll have to think about.
  - DTrejo 18y ago
    YC readers are so encouraging.
mseebach 18y ago
As bigbang said, the third world. But more importantly, it allows people, also in the western world, to convert free time into some money. You might have a unchallenging 9-5 job, and easily have 5-6 hours to pass in the evenings. If you turk rather than watch bad TV and get a few extra dollars an hour, over a week, it's maybe $100/week extra to put away for something nice. Also, you can cancel the big cable package if you stop watching TV. Getting a night shift somewhere would probably pay more, but include bosses, annoying co-workers/customers, standing up, sweating, smelling like french fries etc. rather sitting in a nice chair, working at your own pace, with the TV on in the background, and being able to go call on your kids if you need to. In fact, min. wage minus sitter might be less than what you can get from turking.
blasdel 18y ago
No, but you can't make any money playing flash games

Dilpil 18y ago

Woah, this turk thing sounds awesome.