5 ms·

The future of work: There’s an app for that

84 points by wallflower 12y ago

deleted 12y ago
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deleted 12y ago
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wahsd 12y ago
Although I am quite interested in this space, I feel like this has already been attempted on several occasions. Maybe it's a bit different, but I think there are significant issues with these models related to the risks to IP and also work cohesiveness.
- abandonliberty 12y ago
  I agree, I don't think this will target job markets that have significant IP concerns or teamwork, culture, and ramp-up requirements. It is a good way to go after trade/unskilled labour.
vegabook 12y ago
Yet again we have the interests of macroeconomics clashing with the interests of communities. This makes perfect economic sense. You're a business, if things go poorly you scale down cost-free, if they go better, scale up at slightly higher cost than fixed, but the flex is more than worth it. After all, with this you protect margins in all scenarios. Perfect no? In this sense, it mirrors cloud compute instances. Lower capital investment, granular scalability (in this case of human resource rather than compute resource). Except that it reminds me of an old adage of finance: you cannot eliminate risk - you can only transfer it. This is a classic example of risk transferral: from capital to labour. It makes tons of sense for a business. It makes much less sense for the employees, who, atomised commodities, have no bargaining power. This is, by extension, a bad idea for society, if you accept that groupings of individuals, including those defined by today's "corporations" exist precisely to reduce risk for each individual. That is the implicit exchange between employee and employer. I will provide you with the opportunity to profit from my labour; you will provide me with security. This breaks that contract. To those who will argue that it is good for aggregate growth, I say, trickle down is not happening. Eliminate the trickle down argument and you're left with a bad proposition.//
- humanrebar 12y ago
  These jobs don't look like good full-time jobs, no, but don't we have a big problem right now with underployment, especially in the unskilled labor sector? It seems to me that providing a way to productively fill the empty mornings in your week with odd jobs actually reduces risk in certain ways. That being said, the people with disposable income don't typically live down the street from the people with more time than money. The U.S. may not have diverse enough zip codes to support this model beyond a modest scale. That is, is the transaction cost too high if the guy helping you move that fridge has to commute 1.5 hours and spend another 15 minutes finding your house?
  - gaius 12y ago
    1.5 hours and spend another 15 minutes finding your house? The economics of this only works because that guy isn't paid for that time. Like the way air hostesses are only paid once the wheels leave the ground.
    - toomuchtodo 12y ago
      > Like the way air hostesses are only paid once the wheels leave the ground. The pilots as well (usually all except the most senior. source: several flight instructors). The clock doesn't start until the door closes.
- Flip-per 12y ago
  Off topic: In portfolios, risk can be reduced via diversification without being transferred: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_portfolio_theory#Systematic_risk_and_specific_risk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_portfolio_theory#System...
  - richardwhiuk 12y ago
    Can you give a specific example? It seems to me you can either share out risk, or place a bet to offset the risk, in which case you have transferred the risk to the person taking the bet at some price. They may be taking / placing yet another bet, but that simply moves it on further. To make it concrete, if I buy a house, and there's a chance that it'll fall down this year and I'll loose the 100k , then after a year is up, if it's fallen down the sum of whatever portfolio it's been distributed in is still down 100k.
raincom 12y ago
All these innovations are useful, when we don't need to slave away 40% of time to pay rents.
ivankolev 12y ago
the company name seemed vaguely familiar, and then I remembered to check my Pocket reading queue: http://thebillfold.com/2014/10/my-day-interviewing-for-the-service-economy-startup-from-hell/ http://thebillfold.com/2014/10/my-day-interviewing-for-the-s...
- dalacv 12y ago
  What a great article / story. I could not stop reading. Very well written and entertaining.
Futurebot 12y ago
Another article on the topic from The Economist (lead article from the latest issue) that is worth reading: http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21637393-rise-demand-economy-poses-difficult-questions-workers-companies-and http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21637393-rise-demand-e...

84 points by wallflower 12y ago

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

wahsd 12y ago

Although I am quite interested in this space, I feel like this has already been attempted on several occasions. Maybe it's a bit different, but I think there are significant issues with these models related to the risks to IP and also work cohesiveness.

abandonliberty 12y ago
I agree, I don't think this will target job markets that have significant IP concerns or teamwork, culture, and ramp-up requirements. It is a good way to go after trade/unskilled labour.

vegabook 12y ago

Yet again we have the interests of macroeconomics clashing with the interests of communities. This makes perfect economic sense. You're a business, if things go poorly you scale down cost-free, if they go better, scale up at slightly higher cost than fixed, but the flex is more than worth it. After all, with this you protect margins in all scenarios. Perfect no? In this sense, it mirrors cloud compute instances. Lower capital investment, granular scalability (in this case of human resource rather than compute resource). Except that it reminds me of an old adage of finance: you cannot eliminate risk - you can only transfer it. This is a classic example of risk transferral: from capital to labour. It makes tons of sense for a business. It makes much less sense for the employees, who, atomised commodities, have no bargaining power. This is, by extension, a bad idea for society, if you accept that groupings of individuals, including those defined by today's "corporations" exist precisely to reduce risk for each individual. That is the implicit exchange between employee and employer. I will provide you with the opportunity to profit from my labour; you will provide me with security. This breaks that contract. To those who will argue that it is good for aggregate growth, I say, trickle down is not happening. Eliminate the trickle down argument and you're left with a bad proposition.//

humanrebar 12y ago
These jobs don't look like good full-time jobs, no, but don't we have a big problem right now with underployment, especially in the unskilled labor sector? It seems to me that providing a way to productively fill the empty mornings in your week with odd jobs actually reduces risk in certain ways. That being said, the people with disposable income don't typically live down the street from the people with more time than money. The U.S. may not have diverse enough zip codes to support this model beyond a modest scale. That is, is the transaction cost too high if the guy helping you move that fridge has to commute 1.5 hours and spend another 15 minutes finding your house?
- gaius 12y ago
  1.5 hours and spend another 15 minutes finding your house? The economics of this only works because that guy isn't paid for that time. Like the way air hostesses are only paid once the wheels leave the ground.
  - toomuchtodo 12y ago
    > Like the way air hostesses are only paid once the wheels leave the ground. The pilots as well (usually all except the most senior. source: several flight instructors). The clock doesn't start until the door closes.
Flip-per 12y ago
Off topic: In portfolios, risk can be reduced via diversification without being transferred: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_portfolio_theory#Systematic_risk_and_specific_risk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_portfolio_theory#System...
- richardwhiuk 12y ago
  Can you give a specific example? It seems to me you can either share out risk, or place a bet to offset the risk, in which case you have transferred the risk to the person taking the bet at some price. They may be taking / placing yet another bet, but that simply moves it on further. To make it concrete, if I buy a house, and there's a chance that it'll fall down this year and I'll loose the 100k , then after a year is up, if it's fallen down the sum of whatever portfolio it's been distributed in is still down 100k.

raincom 12y ago

All these innovations are useful, when we don't need to slave away 40% of time to pay rents.

ivankolev 12y ago

the company name seemed vaguely familiar, and then I remembered to check my Pocket reading queue: http://thebillfold.com/2014/10/my-day-interviewing-for-the-service-economy-startup-from-hell/ http://thebillfold.com/2014/10/my-day-interviewing-for-the-s...

dalacv 12y ago
What a great article / story. I could not stop reading. Very well written and entertaining.

Futurebot 12y ago

Another article on the topic from The Economist (lead article from the latest issue) that is worth reading: http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21637393-rise-demand-economy-poses-difficult-questions-workers-companies-and http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21637393-rise-demand-e...