Turning personal trust in others into what looks like a stock market game strikes me as quite odd. I wouldn't find people trading internet points back and forth to determine my 'value' on a platform as something I would like. I like the trading of points even less considering the target of the website about people representing themselves in the scope of their professions.
In the Charles Stross book Accelerondo, something much like you describe becomes official. Tongue in cheek, and on the edge between satire and plausible. Some people's reputations are gambled on or invested in, and are subject to bubbles, manipulation, swings from news etc.
Also recommended reading (and much easier than Accellerando) is Quality Land by Marc-Uwe Kling. A satirical story about when trusting algorithms goes a bit too far.
No. I reject the premise that exchanging labor for compensation is the same as self-commidification parallel to having a simulacrum of "stocks" that are bought and sold based upon whims and sentiment like some kind of fungible, tradeable asset. 100% rejecting that.
The former is a mutually beneficial exchange, not an ephemeral manifestation of trading chattel that masquerades as some indicator of competence or value in the job market as is the latter-IMO.
I am not a commodity, I sell my skills and talents as services by virtue of career-based contributions to my employer. Are those commodities? Arguably, probably so. Those are the table stakes.
Absolutely agree. Treating people like stocks completely ignores individual agency and decision making. A stock cannot choose to be traded, but I sure as hell can choose to quit.
Is it that common to switch jobs purely for the money? For the gigantic pay raises yes, but I think for the vast majority, you switch jobs for a variety of non-commodifying factors along with money.
What an insipid and silly assertion. Just because I can switch jobs or ask for a raise doesn’t mean I’m nothing but a commodity in the labor market. Classic category error. But makes sense why you seem obsessed with a product that wants to reduce you to a number
So what? That's what capitalism does. It cheapens and commodifies everything. Often, that's what you want, but when it comes to personal relationships, or welfare of people and animals, maybe it's not. Both parents working 10 hour days and neglecting their kids and quality time just so they can climb the corporate ladder is a more serious example. The other day I wrote about Facebook doing it to the words "friend" and "like":
I remember an acquaintance of mine, Siqi Chen, built Friends for Sale back in the day on Facebook and that was a great launch pad for his career, where he did a lot more interesting stuff later :)
Valid point. Yet millions of people each day make buying decisions based on a simple 5-star rating. Trading shares is a very pure way to represent market value, whether that is company stock or cryptocurrency. We see an opportunity to apply the concept to a professional digital reputation? Where the TRU Score can be used as a form of currency.
Separate from the TRU Score, the platform provides the ability to connect with professionals across different service types, by "matching" services offered and services needed. So, you could offer your services and people could find/connect with you, independent of your TRU Score.
They're making purchase decisions on 5-star ratings for eg consumer goods, objects. You're talking about trading people virtually. It's going to be extraordinarily offensive and maybe worse.
Prepare for an incredible wave of never-ending lawsuits from the large number of people who don't like 1) being traded at all or 2) don't like how they're trading / being represented. And the service will lose those lawsuits: it'll be demonstrated to cause reputational harm, and the service dies right there.
I remember an acquaintance of mine, Siqi Chen, built Friends for Sale back in the day on Facebook and that was a great launch pad for his career, where he did a lot more interesting stuff later :)
There are a lot of things that weren't considered offensive on the Internet 10 or 20 years ago, that are now offensive.
It shouldn't take more than a brief amount of thought to realize what imagery trading humans conjures up, and what happens next in terms of outrage and scandal and what will inevitably plague the service accordingly. Hint: will the trading all be perfectly fair? Without bigotry, without bias, without racism, without any accusations, and so on. Of course not, so it's obvious what will happen.
In pure Capitalism you aren’t supposed to rebalance things for “fairness”. Bailing out the losers just makes the market competition weaker. It’s survival of the fittest. What exactly is “fairness” in the context of Capitalism? Someone happened to be at the right place and make money. Now they are ahead. And why not?
To be clear, the platform does not support "short selling" of the shares in another member. So, there is no effective way to deliberately drive down the reputation of another member.
Shares are traded in a fixed size of 100. Each BUY transaction increases the share price by 0.01. Each SELL transaction, reduces the share price by 0.01.
When you join the service, shares in your profile become available to trade by every other member. Members discover each other primarily based on services offered/needed. Today, if you like someone on a network, you might choose to "follow" or "like" them. We offer an alternative, whereby you "invest" in them.
A follow or like from you to someone else makes the connection and allows you to view their network activity. An investment on SELLFF does the same "and" allows you to benefit from any upside in the value of that investment. As the person you invest in goes up in value, so do you. Not a bad situation really.
Anytime you like, you can BUY or SELL more shares. The exchange is open for trading 24 x 7.
Sounds pretty complicated. It doesn't seem like something I would want to participate in. I don't participate on most social networks, though.
I don't mean to boast, but make a point that such a service seemingly won't add any value to folk like me. Just from past work connections alone, I get 1 or 2 phone calls a year from direct acquaintances wondering if I want to join a serious startup from the start. I also get a handful of linkedin messages a week from recruiters despite not having even looked at my own profile in 5+ years. It literally requires no effort on my part. All I've done through my career is find projects I'm inherently interested in, focus on the technical work with heart and conviction, and always try to be a friendly and helpful coworker.
Likewise, if somebody's resume primarily featured a social credit score like this above hands-on domain relevant experience, it probably wouldn't stack up too well against other resumes, unless their high score was specifically due to them cleverly gaming the algorithms and documenting it or something. That would make them an interesting candidate!
