Testing Favor: app aims to bring users whatever they need – but does it deliver?
by Calum Marsh from Technology | The Guardian on (#K0A0)
Do you need your dry cleaning dropped off or some cat litter picked up? Capitalism insists you shouldn't bother - pay a startup to do it for you
A good invention, popular wisdom tells us, ought to either fulfill a need or create one. But popular wisdom greatly underestimates our laziness.
These days, a good invention simply indulges our sloth: what are Seamless and Drizly if not attempts to make perfectly accomplishable tasks a little easier? I understand the impulse - indeed, it's difficult to resist the sites' appeal. Imagine a 10-minute errand forcing you off the couch in the middle of a Netflix binge-watch. It won't do.
Continue reading...