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Magic

getmagicnow.com

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Re: Magic

#521

Post by white-flame »

sinwave wrote: post #68

This reminds me of an opinion that I have which I've been looking for an opportunity to flesh out and share. Despite all of the research and engineering that's gone into the user interface (and "experience") of smartphones, text messaging as an interface has one massive advantage: the perceived cost of sending a text is miniscule in comparison to other operations. I don't have units, but it's probably an order of mag…

I project the opposite way, though I know I might be in the stark minority:

My perception of the cost of text messaging for something which requires a dialogue on a portable device is unnecessarily high, compared to a less than 1 minute phone call. This isn't just due to the slowness of typing vs voice.

All of the examples of this service are conversational. Conversational idea description through text messages is generally slower and more ambiguous than through voice.

When trying to get our thoughts communicated into somebody else's thoughts, we need feedback to let us estimate how close the other person's thoughts match ours, before pulling the trigger on a transaction. In text, the packetization of messages delays all opportunities for feedback, and has a more limited bandwidth of expression compared to vocal inflection and body language.

For sending simple status notifications to others, text works great. For unambiguous, unidirectional communication, text works great. When time spent communicating doesn't matter, bidirectional texting is fine. For dialogues where you describe something you want done, text sucks.

Re: Magic

#522

Post by [deleted] »

jdmichal wrote: post #520
acjohnson55 wrote: post #479

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's a bit naive. In the micro, one new task economy startup might be a net gain, all other things being equal, but if it's part of a macro trend where skilled jobs are disappearing and being replaced with commodity task work, we might be sliding down a dangerous slope. Your final question sound kind of like the slightly more extreme argument that yacht factories enrich otherwise unemployed people. To me, t…

In addition to all this, let's be clear. The only wealth being "transferred" here is that of the minimum wage to workers. Everything else is making someone else rich, likely already rich investors.

[deleted]

Re: Magic

#523

Post by kbart »

swandive wrote: post #348

Idea 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…

"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."

The problem is how do you pay such workers? If that's per order cut, they will want to make as many orders as possible inevitably degrading the service quality. And it usually takes a single bad experience to put people off of such service.. Actually, I don't see how this can scale well, imho, they should market more like "personal assistant on demand" and include monthly fees or pay per assistant's time, what also could solve a questions-that-do-not-result-in-order problem.

Re: Magic

#524

Post by modoc »

berberous wrote: post #427
MichaelGG wrote: post #417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In general it was fairly reasonable. On the console, they managed to find a store not too far away that had stock and reserved it for me. No fee. Their travel agency also seemed pretty useful. Best concierge thing was going to a packed restaurant, told it'd take a long time without reservations, making a call and turning around to "right this way". No fee from Amex. They really wanna sell the flattery/status idea to…

Curious -- what card do you have and what restaurant was this? I'm wondering how often this works.

FWIW Amex Business Platinum card holder here. Their Concierge got us a reservation for 6 people at 8 pm, at the French Laundry, the next day.... That's as close to magic as I've ever seen.

Re: Magic

#525

Post by k__ »

kolinko wrote: post #392
k__ wrote: post #358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

In what universe creating additional demand for jobs is a bad thing? (Rhetolical, don't bother answering)

Creating additional demand for low-level jobs is a bad thing, because no one really wants to do them. People just do them for the money. The goal should be to eliminate the need for people to do this, not to create even more of those jobs.

Re: Magic

#526

Post by vdaubry »

Maybe it's me but i don't feel confident giving my credit card after reading the home page. After reading the whole page i understand the business but my first impression was really somewhere between "is this a joke ? / they are stealing credit card numbers"

Maybe the very cheap design discredit the whole project.

Re: Magic

#527

Post by benwikler »

My baby daughter is five days overdue. My three-year-old son keeps asking when he'll be a big brother. And my wife and I are trying to figure out how we'll do the grocery shopping—or even focus on a computer screen long enough to shop online—once we're juggling two kids. When I told my wife about Magic, she visibly relaxed. This service has huge, huge potential.

Re: Magic

#528

Post by CPLX »

throwawaymsft wrote: post #425
CPLX wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 it's seamless when you want takeout. And instacart when you want groceries. And something else when you want office supplies. And a fourth thing to make dinner reservations...

Indeed: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9094791

Re: Magic

#529

Post by scott_karana »

mod wrote: post #468
inyourtenement wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know a guy who buys cheap cars, fixes them, and resells them. All through craigslist. But whenever he buys a car, even one he plans to keep for himself, he immediately lists it with a huge markup. Just today he got an offer for $3200 on a motorcycle he bought last week for $2000.

I often think that would be a great gig. I like fixing things. But I don't know how to work on cars. So there's that...

You'd be surprised how much you can learn from a classic Haynes manual. Start small (changing oil, tires) and you might surprise yourself!

Re: Magic

#530

Post by jboggan »

ryanlol wrote: post #482
jboggan wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you visit this link, they can pay you $5,000: https://magic.bettir.com/?p=-500000

Stripe doesn't let you send money to cards.

I'm glad to know Stripe's API is sane but you cannot ever rely on that when designing something like this!
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