Maybe the Gig Economy Isn’t Reshaping Work After All • Hacker News Board

Re: Maybe the Gig Economy Isn’t Reshaping Work After All

#41

Post by xapata » Fri, Jun 08, 2018, 8:34 PM UTC

lalos wrote: post #5

It did reshape it. Turns out you can offload your costs to your 'employees' that hardly will organize and project costs and earnings to the future (like a competent business). I've talked with bunch of car sharing drivers who were bamboozled with car loans, get hit by traffic infractions, costs of maintenance and the list goes on and on. I feel that the gig economy preys on people who have not developed that risk man…

I used to drive pizza delivery. That promise of quick cash for driving has been around for a long time.

Re: Maybe the Gig Economy Isn’t Reshaping Work After All

#42

Post by mrtksn » Fri, Jun 08, 2018, 8:37 PM UTC

When I first arrived in London my English was not good enough to speak on the phone, I had no idea what the London job market for developers looked like, I had no idea where should I live and where should I settle.

So for the first 3-4 months, I did some wine waiting as a gig(agency work, no fixed place or hours. Like with Uber, you provide your own gear - like uniforms, bottle openers etc.) at the finest, the most iconic places in London. I worked at the Shard, I worked at the Cafe Royal, I worked at Four Seasons in events where celebrities like Victoria Beckham or Prince Harry were guests. I did my jubilee at BAFTA's after party, I was the wine waiter for the award-winning team that made the Amy Winehouse documentary. That night I had a chance to meet with pretty much every single celebrity(900+ guests from the industry), I was a huge Breaking Bad fan and I had the chance to speak with Walter White.

How to get into this gig business without ever working in this industry? 1 day of training and boom, I'm a waiter at the fines restaurants in the world.

It was such an amazing experience but whoever imagines living like that forever should have poor judgement. I was there to make some money until I get a real job and open a bank account(really hard to do because of catch 22) and most people who worked with me were either new arrivals like me or Australians who came to the UK to experience Europe for a year or 2(They come just before or after college with 2 year work visa, work for few months and travel Europe).

The world is transforming, the employment contracts are not the driving force. They are a reaction to the new needs. I think it's alright, an equilibrium will be reached.

Re: Maybe the Gig Economy Isn’t Reshaping Work After All

#43

Post by oldgeezr » Fri, Jun 08, 2018, 8:37 PM UTC

danschumann wrote: post #3

People(most people) like to do the same thing every day. Even me, I'm a programmer and have different tasks, but I get most of my work through one client. I would hate to be chasing down new clients all the time.

Working on new projects every couple of weeks would be fun.

Learning a new set of APIs, version control strategies, team members, platform peculiarities, build systems, bug reporting and issue tracking software, groupware... fuck that. I could sort of do it when I was in my early 30s but not now.

Re: Maybe the Gig Economy Isn’t Reshaping Work After All

#44

Post by wutbrodo » Fri, Jun 08, 2018, 8:37 PM UTC

bluedino wrote: post #37

thaumasiotes wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Continuing the beer theme of my sidethread comment, I read a piece years ago making the point that the then-current explosion of microbreweries looked like a productivity disaster -- microbreweries produce a gallon of beer for a much higher cost than Anheuser-Busch does, so when an economist working with national-level data divides "beer produced in 2011" by "dollars spent producing beer in 2011", it looks like beer…

Is it better for the economy for people to buy coffee from Starbucks or from 7-11? One is much cheaper and frees up money to be spent on other things.

> One is much cheaper and frees up money to be spent on other things.

The "other things" that people would spend on are just other vehicles for acquiring utility. If the customer enjoys the better coffee enough to justify the higher cost, then spending on that is exactly in line with "better for the economy".

Re: Maybe the Gig Economy Isn’t Reshaping Work After All

#45

Post by kbenson » Fri, Jun 08, 2018, 8:38 PM UTC

lalos wrote: post #5

It did reshape it. Turns out you can offload your costs to your 'employees' that hardly will organize and project costs and earnings to the future (like a competent business). I've talked with bunch of car sharing drivers who were bamboozled with car loans, get hit by traffic infractions, costs of maintenance and the list goes on and on. I feel that the gig economy preys on people who have not developed that risk man…

> I've talked with bunch of car sharing drivers who were bamboozled with car loans, get hit by traffic infractions, costs of maintenance and the list goes on and on.

I've seen a lot of the people that some cases of people that do it that are future minded and care about running the numbers just rent a car for the day. All of a sudden, you've abstracted away a lot of those variable costs to a third party. Unfortunately, I think the rental companies wised up after a while, and have wording in the contracts about ride-sharing now.

I imagine in a large enough metro area, someone could (or has) abstract the vehicle and maintenance portion of the larger taxi services to specialized rental service for people that work in ride-sharing. Rent a ride-share car for a day, or more likely by the hour, and they'll make sure it's clean and in good running condition and meets the requirements for ride sharing service X, Y or Z. Specialized ride-sharing insurance optional...

Actually, I imagine some of the existing taxi services in larger cities might have already shifted to this. Seems like a natural pivot, since they already have the majority of what's needed in place.

Re: Maybe the Gig Economy Isn’t Reshaping Work After All

#46

Post by sotojuan » Fri, Jun 08, 2018, 8:38 PM UTC

anyfoo wrote: post #9

danschumann wrote: post #3

People(most people) like to do the same thing every day. Even me, I'm a programmer and have different tasks, but I get most of my work through one client. I would hate to be chasing down new clients all the time.

Is that true, do most people like doing the same thing every day? It certainly is not true for me. EDIT: A few repliers clarified that it's probably about the stable and reliable income, and not about the nature of the work that's done every day. I can agree with that!

A lot of people would love the stability and predictability of a regular 9-5 office job. I think that's what they meant.

Re: Maybe the Gig Economy Isn’t Reshaping Work After All

#47

Post by xapata » Fri, Jun 08, 2018, 8:38 PM UTC

danschumann wrote: post #3

People(most people) like to do the same thing every day. Even me, I'm a programmer and have different tasks, but I get most of my work through one client. I would hate to be chasing down new clients all the time.

Maintaining the sales pipeline is tough while delivering the current project(s). But that's what pays the bills.

Re: Maybe the Gig Economy Isn’t Reshaping Work After All

#48

Post by the_cat_kittles » Fri, Jun 08, 2018, 8:38 PM UTC

lalos wrote: post #5

It did reshape it. Turns out you can offload your costs to your 'employees' that hardly will organize and project costs and earnings to the future (like a competent business). I've talked with bunch of car sharing drivers who were bamboozled with car loans, get hit by traffic infractions, costs of maintenance and the list goes on and on. I feel that the gig economy preys on people who have not developed that risk man…

bring back unions

Re: Maybe the Gig Economy Isn’t Reshaping Work After All

#49

Post by xapata » Fri, Jun 08, 2018, 8:41 PM UTC

menacingly wrote: post #36

thaumasiotes wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Continuing the beer theme of my sidethread comment, I read a piece years ago making the point that the then-current explosion of microbreweries looked like a productivity disaster -- microbreweries produce a gallon of beer for a much higher cost than Anheuser-Busch does, so when an economist working with national-level data divides "beer produced in 2011" by "dollars spent producing beer in 2011", it looks like beer…

This is great, it's one of those ideas I'll come back to later and think about again, applying to different stuff. Economics is such a tragedy, because on the one hand it's so elegant and satisfying, but on the other it seems sufficiently incomplete to be considered broken. Maybe it's the newtonian version of something.

You mean current methods will be replaced by more nuanced and accurate methods. Not that economics will be replaced. That'd be like physics being replaced instead of the methods changing.

Newtonian methods had known flaws before relativity replaced them and quantum mechanics expanded that. Current economic methods also have known flaws. We're just waiting for Einstein.

Re: Maybe the Gig Economy Isn’t Reshaping Work After All

#50

Post by briandear » Fri, Jun 08, 2018, 8:42 PM UTC

nerdponx wrote: post #14

lalos wrote: post #5

It did reshape it. Turns out you can offload your costs to your 'employees' that hardly will organize and project costs and earnings to the future (like a competent business). I've talked with bunch of car sharing drivers who were bamboozled with car loans, get hit by traffic infractions, costs of maintenance and the list goes on and on. I feel that the gig economy preys on people who have not developed that risk man…

Interesting that this thread and the "chatbots aren't so great after all" thread hit the front page on the same day. Anyone who actually thought people gave a shit about chatbots was either deluded, a chatbot API salesman, or a manager/owner trying to cut costs by downsizing their call/chat support center. Anyone who actually thought the gig economy was helping anyone but business owners was either deluded or a shill…

It helps the business owner and the consumer. Let’s not forget the consumer here. It also helps those willing to engage in gig activities. If Uber wasn’t marginally beneficial to drivers, why do they do it? Acting like Uber drivers are all idiots and need “protecting” is idiotic. If the economics don’t work, they quit.