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Magic+

getmagicnow.com

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Re: Magic+

#481
post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually have a personal assistant, but for many tasks, Magic+ is simply better (and completely responsive 24/7, which I would never demand of an employee).

Can you give some specific examples of things that Magic+ does better than a local personal assistant, besides being available around the clock?

They are exceptionally good at getting things done. A regular person could spend hours or days researching the best way to get something done, Magic already knows. There are real scale effects here.

Re: Magic+

#482
post #30
post #26

The examples are puzzling to me. Take this one: "I’m out of the office today. Check my email and let me know if there’s anything urgent." Are they proposing we should be ok with giving them our credentials?

Many of our users give us access to various aspects of their personal and work lives in order to gain the benefit of efficiency and saved time. We also set up users who don't want to share their primary email with email addresses at our domain.

I sure hope they aren't giving you their work credentials....geezus, talk about an infosec nightmare.

Re: Magic+

#483

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's an interesting idea, but I agree, I don't see how it's a tech company in any way.

This is weird to me. It may not be pushing the bar forward on AI or NLP, but it uses one of the most commonly used interpersonal communications technologies today to put a human experience in front of a seemingly boundless personal assistant. Look, it may not be Tesla, but there are a couple of unicorns that seem tech savvy now, that weren't so much for the first little while. AirBnB comes to mind - their analytics n…

It's still not really a tech company, though. Maybe you could call it a "remote company" or "virtual company" due to how they operate, but in my opinion, you can't really call yourself a technology company if you haven't programmed or engineered some sort of software or hardware.

Re: Magic+

#484
post #476

Ok. I must seriously be missing something here. I'm usually the last person to complain about shilling, because even on the very rare occasions that I am confident that some sort of "astroturf" operation is going on I usually find it to be a somewhat valid or at least entertaining form of promotion and don't care that it is clearly just advertising. But seriously, this thread is absurd. I truly do not understand how…

I look at the data on these posts all the time and can assure you that the interest in this one is genuine. There's nothing implausible about a startup attracting attention on HN anyhow—especially when the startup started on HN. People are much too quick to jump to a "shilling" explanation when other people's interests differ from their own. We need a name for this bias.

It's a special case of the narrative fallacy.

Re: Magic+

#485
post #162
post #71

I use Magic and they provide incredible service. They've been able to accomplish pretty much everything I've asked, including some requests that I thought were borderline outlandish, such as having food from a restaurant across the country sent to me via chilled overnight air mail for a friend's birthday as a big flashy surprise (friend's favorite restaurant). If you value your time more than your money, then they're…

> such as having food from a restaurant across the country sent to me via chilled overnight air mail for a friend's birthday as a big flashy surprise Maybe I'm missing something here, but this is making me seriously think about what Magic's target market is. What kind of income would a person need to fathom affording something like that? I know people who I would consider "wealthy" on a first-world scale but this see…

Ordinary people do this all the time. People have Chicago pizzas shipped to LA, and Lockhart barbecue shipped to Boston. When you go to touristy "destination" dining spots, they almost invariably have signs saying they ship food.

This being the case, all Magic is really doing here is helping you find out which restaurants will ship, and perhaps making some phone calls to arrange shipments that aren't advertised.

Re: Magic+

#486

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I spent over 60 hours of intense work to do a project for free for them that they requested. That might be where you went wrong.

At the time, Magic was one of the hottest startups in the Valley. I was willing to hustle hard to get my foot in the door. But I agree with you, I need to be more judicial with my time in the future.

Sounds like you got hustled. But it's a lesson learned, so at least there's some value there.

Re: Magic+

#487

I'd love to try this, as there is an out-of-production bag that is probably out there but I could not find this holiday season. People aren't mentioning this here, but the real sticker shock is not $100 / hour but rather that to get that price you have to be ready to pay $1000 now or sign up for a $3000 a month subscription (that also begins now) The low-key information page doesn't really set you up for that level o…

I think it makes sense that they only want people who are serious about it. If they didn't have a high up-front entry cost, they'd inevitably end up with lots of pranksters 'trying out' the service with ludicrous/dumb requests ("make my wife love me again"; "buy twenty pizzas, then hurl them into the ocean at this exact point") and bogging things down.

"buy twenty pizzas, then hurl them into the ocean at this exact point"

Yes, you made my day.

Re: Magic+

#488

Isn't this just an overpriced Zirtual? https://www.zirtual.com/plans-pricing

Zirtual may be overpriced

Check their competitors to compare pricing, these might be comparatively cheaper without compromising on quality

http://www.habiliss.com/indiv/virtual-assistant-services-pri... http://www.asksunday.com/dedicatedplanspricing https://www.redbutler.com/plans

Re: Magic+

#489

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You completely hit the hammer on the head with both this comment and the parent. I just assume that a big amount of 20-25-ish developers here that make $180.000 are excited at the prospect of having a personal assistant to match their other unreasonable status enhancing purchases. As if any 'rich person' would spend any amount of time texting some random employee and give them access to his e-mails. If I were rich an…

> You completely hit the hammer on the head http://dannybaranowski.blogspot.hu/2012/06/idioms-for-idiots...

Point well taken.

Re: Magic+

#490

$100 an hour? Fuck that. I'm currently living abroad and don't speak the language very well. So I hired a virtual assistant who speaks the language and English. He charges $7.50 USD an hour. I only pay him for time it takes to complete my tasks. I rarely even pay $100 for the whole month.

From where did you hire?

From upwork.com.
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