This will get abused by fraud really quickly.
Magic
351–360 of 558 posts
Re: Magic
#352Earlier quoted context omitted.
The very fact that Apple has 800M credit cards on file is the reason why they know better than offering a service like this. Even if 10% of their users started using their service to require "magic", there is no way in hell even a company like Apple could scale an operation like this that's bottlenecked by humans.
>bottlenecked by humans I saw a profile (probably on HN) about how the Siri technology was developed. This service sounds nearly ideal for Siri. In the short term I'd bet 50% of requests could be handled with total automation. Seeing how they add functionality to the system I'd bet they can get that up into the 70+% range over time. Many things still require a human touch, but you can throttle demand with pricing. I'…
> 50% of requests could be handled with total automation
Do you actually use Siri yourself? Siri might have seen some improvements lately, but there's no way it could handle stuff like this.
Re: Magic
#353Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'll elaborate a bit. I'm not concerned with criticizing this service or its users. It triggered my previous comment as it serves as another example of the life of well off westerners becoming one more step abstracted and insulated from reality, which is something that ought to be resisted. The more removed you are from your source of food, water, clothing etc. the more wasteful the process of obtaining it is in term…
All this is well and good, and I agree with it, but it doesn't really have anything to do with this service. > Services like this encourage not knowing where your food, water, clothing etc. is coming from You don't know where those products are coming from. The ingredients in the food you're ordering have been gathered industrially, processed industrially, probably moved between four different countries, ended up at…
Yes, I completely agree. Ordering a take away pizza yourself, buying a frozen one, ordering one at a restaurant, making your own using bought ingredients, they are all steps along that path. My point doesnt really belong here. In my last post I used the word "triggered" because that is what reading about this service did. I was witness to yet another small step being added to that path. At times like this maybe we can all step back for a moment and think about the ridiculousness of the system we have built.
Re: Magic
#354I just decided to try this out in Seattle. Here's how it went! http://brianbeck.com/images/magic.png (the minimum was from the sushi place, not Magic)
This is horrible compared to my daily experience using Seamless. Why would a person craving sushi want to exchange 8 text messages and then click on a web link and get sushi 2+ hours later?
Because they want to feel they have their own personal servant.
Re: Magic
#355Earlier quoted context omitted.
All this is well and good, and I agree with it, but it doesn't really have anything to do with this service. > Services like this encourage not knowing where your food, water, clothing etc. is coming from You don't know where those products are coming from. The ingredients in the food you're ordering have been gathered industrially, processed industrially, probably moved between four different countries, ended up at…
Yes, I completely agree. Ordering a take away pizza yourself, buying a frozen one, ordering one at a restaurant, making your own using bought ingredients, they are all steps along that path. My point doesnt really belong here. In my last post I used the word "triggered" because that is what reading about this service did. I was witness to yet another small step being added to that path. At times like this maybe we ca…
contd. Though maybe this is as good as forum as any? In order to have a less wasteful and whimsically arranged society perhaps we need to constantly analyse and critique it, to not ever be passive and thoughtless of the consequences of things?
Re: Magic
#356Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hm, well here's a startling difference between the HN and Product Hunt community. The PH comments: This website looks extremely untrustworthy, purely from a design standpoint. I feel a lot of potential users would be put off by this! Interesting idea. Terrible site design. Unclear if they're charging for this added convenience. http://www.producthunt.com/posts/magic
This was pretty funny, actually. They saw the old version I mentioned above. I was surprised when someone posted it on there and I was actually glad that the reaction was lukewarm, because we didn't think we were ready to launch. And then...boom.
[deleted]
Re: Magic
#357Idea to scale: As a non-coder, I love reading the responses of programers here. "Automate this!" "There is no way to scale." "This needs AI." As an outsider looking in, my idea to scale is similar to Uber. Have workers that can sign on to work whenever they have the time. The workers handle the orders and receive a cut of the fee you charge. It would be great if you could have some kind of rating system where the con…
You're basically describing ODesk, Elance, Mechanical Turk, etc... Not saying this execution will/won't work, but there are lots of firms that seemed to have make it work to solve a similar / the same problem set.
Re: Magic
#358Idea to scale: As a non-coder, I love reading the responses of programers here. "Automate this!" "There is no way to scale." "This needs AI." As an outsider looking in, my idea to scale is similar to Uber. Have workers that can sign on to work whenever they have the time. The workers handle the orders and receive a cut of the fee you charge. It would be great if you could have some kind of rating system where the con…
You're basically describing ODesk, Elance, Mechanical Turk, etc... Not saying this execution will/won't work, but there are lots of firms that seemed to have make it work to solve a similar / the same problem set.
Things like Mechanical Turk are just creating minimum wage jobs and we were better of without them, I think.
Magic will create many call-center like jobs...
Re: Magic
#359Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're basically describing ODesk, Elance, Mechanical Turk, etc... Not saying this execution will/won't work, but there are lots of firms that seemed to have make it work to solve a similar / the same problem set.
Things like Mechanical Turk are just creating minimum wage jobs and we were better of without them, I think. Magic will create many call-center like jobs...
Call-center jobs in US are not minimum wage?
Re: Magic
#360Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure! http://brianbeck.com/images/magic-times.png The first couple responses were pretty slow, sounds like they were getting absolutely hammered with requests. I could have done it a lot faster myself for sure, seems promising though!
That actually doesn't seem very good. If I'm craving sushi as 7pm, getting delivered at 9:15 isn't really going to do it for me.
The more trained and properly staffed they are, the faster it'll be, I don't think it's representative