Poll of the Day > Penny for your thoughts (Thought Experiment Poll)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Tomorrow you get offered an unusual job. It's pretty straight forwards. You will push a button.

Rules

1) Every time you push the button you will earn $0.01 (or whatever your equiv is). There is no cooldown on this. Feel free to button mash.

2) You MUST physically press the button. No setting up a device to press it for you.

3) You MAY hold the button down, but doing so will give you only $0.01 every second instead of however fast you press it.

4) The button is secure. You can change the surroundings however you desire, but the button cannot be moved.

5) If you stop pressing the button for more than a minute, barring food and bathroom breaks, your 'shift' is 'done'.

6) Should you 'stop working' the button it will count as a work shift and you cannot touch it again until you've slept at least 6 hours. However, you may work it for however short or long you desire (and you can fall asleep at your desk while the button is pressed down).

7) You may do other things while 'working'. So long as you keep pressing the button.

Would you take this job? If no, why not?
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For 36 bucks an hour? Hell yeah. If the room gets wifi than i'll bring my labtop and just fuck around on the internet.
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Seems like a great job. I don't know what the thought experiment analogy is...

The button pusher is getting paid too much. Imagine you're an author, and you just have to type garbage on the internet... and you are being paid 5 cents a word. The button pushing still pays more.
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I sit on the button.
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No, that would hurt my fingers after a while, it would be boring/depressing, and there are better ways to earn even more money.
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Sounds simple but it would drag on. True casino story coming through.
A couple of years ago I was at a casino playing a penny slot. every single pull I won five cents. It was something like 15 cents a pull and I would win 20 cents every pull. From pressing repeat bet to spin again to when the wheels stopped spinning it was something like five seconds. So I was making basically a penny a second. Which was like $3 every five minutes or something like $36 dollars a hour. So I sat at this peculiar machine for ten hours and made around $360 dollars. The whole time I kept thinking am I playing the machine or is it playing me? $36 a hour is a pretty good wage for someone like me. But it was so horrifically boring with little feed back that I couldn't do something like that all the time.

As for this penny counter I would probably do it. I cold crank out $3 a minute on average Which is $180 a hour. Which if I just do a hour a day everyday would net me 65k a year.
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Lokarin posted...

Seems like a great job. I don't know what the thought experiment analogy is...

The button pusher is getting paid too much. Imagine you're an author, and you just have to type garbage on the internet... and you are being paid 5 cents a word. The button pushing still pays more.

You could just type 'a' a lot. It IS a word and an article made up consisting of nothing but that would certainly be garbage. Anyways...

The thought experiment is simple. This job is easy. Even if you put in no effort and just sit on the button you still get paid very well. However it's being presented as repeated installments of one penny. As such some people will be skewed to either see it as not paying well or being too much work for a 'small' payout since the 'best' option involves massive amounts of furious tapping. Course stopping to think about said job reveals that you're basically being paid well above average to effectively sit around and play on a Switch all day and, if you're clever, even more since you could just set your bed up so that you're sleeping on it. But some people will ignore that in favor of 'higher paying' jobs.
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Easily - The biggest perk being that no mandatory amount must be achived. Tap it as much or as little as I want per day. If I want to purchase something extravagent, tap it a few more times.

Though I'd still hold down my current job - doing strictly this one for a living would become a real downer.
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Tax free? Yes. Otherwise, Im better off where I am.
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No. I want a job that actually contributes something to society.
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Unbridled9 posted...

4) The button is secure. You can change the surroundings however you desire, but the button cannot be moved.

oh so I can just watch anime all day?
fuckin sweet
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Sarcasthma posted...

I sit on the button.

This and set up a tv and console on the other side of the room.
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Seems like most people realize that the job pays well. I expected a bunch more people to act like the cash is too low.
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I would take the job, but I'm not sure how many days (or weeks, or months?) I'd work at it. I'd definitely need to find plenty of ways to accomplish more meaningful tasks while I'm there.
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I'd bind the button to my stomach with bungie cords for that sweet $36/hour $864/day $6048/week $314496/year.

Then if I'm bored I can bongo the button for a big mac.
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Unbridled9 posted...

Seems like most people realize that the job pays well. I expected a bunch more people to act like the cash is too low.

We're neeeeeerrrrrds, PotD isn't stupid relative to the general population.
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I'd sit on the button and get paid to play my guitar all day long. I could even give beginners guitar lessons while sitting on the button to make even more money.
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I'd put my feet up so my heel is pressing the button. 60 cents a minute, $36 an hour. If I could manage to stay in that position I'd made $288 and get 8 hours of sleep.
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Kyuubi4269 posted...

I'd bind the button to my stomach with bungie cords for that sweet $36/hour $864/day $6048/week $314496/year.

Then if I'm bored I can bongo the button for a big mac.

Button cannot be moved so this wouldn't work.
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No I wouldn't take it. It's extremely limited and repetitive. It's not only the issue of money that I look for in a job. I like human interaction , flexible timings and a competitive environment. Kind of like the job I have now. It also pays well and is exciting to a degree.
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Hmm.

I just timed myself and I can tap my fingers 40 times in five seconds without too much effort, so that equates to $4.80 a minute or $288 an hour, though I don't think I could keep up that full pace for an hour straight, let alone an eight hour shift. $36 an hour for just holding it down (plainly the better option from a quality of life perspective) would be a pay cut for me, although considering that you could just sit or lean on the button and play video games all day there is an upside there.

Eh. I'd probably pass. I'm happy with what I do currently and I make more money that way.
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Sarcasthma posted...

I sit on the button.

Yup

Kyuubi4269 posted...

Unbridled9 posted...

Seems like most people realize that the job pays well. I expected a bunch more people to act like the cash is too low.

We're neeeeeerrrrrds, PotD isn't stupid relative to the general population.

Well we are, but in different ways.
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