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Comment by TheSpiceIsLife | Hacker News Reader

10p an hour? And he keeps them talking for longer?

I have better things to do with my time.

Edit: hour? I meant to write minute. Vagued out I guess.

Per minute. Keep them talking for 10 minutes and he gets a pound. If he is getting 30 calls per month and keeps each of them talking for just ten minutes, that is 30 pounds worth of beer money that month that he can drink with his friends at the pub - for about 5 hours work/month. Not sure how that compares with minimum wage in the US, but it may be close.

People really value getting things for “free” over working for them.

Don’t believe the florist when he tells you that the roses are free.

Is this a saying? Google isn't returning anything, and I've can't think of a florist structure, where what you were actually buying was obscured.

I wouldn't expect the quality of the free roses to be very good though.

In tourist destinations around europe (particularly Italy) there are people who go around with a bunch of roses and will try fairly forcefully to give a free one to your partner then fairly persistantly request a donation from you. Guessing thats what they are referring to although calling them a florist seems a push.

Ok, never come across that, even in Italy, but would make sense.

It’s a line from a Ween song from 1994 that I first heard as a cover by Phish at a show in ‘99

Amazing Robotic Ween Music Video Version: https://youtu.be/jogJHY-h7n8

Great Live Phish Version: https://youtu.be/-18cAiRCur0

— ROSES ARE FREE

Take a piece of tinsel and put it on the tree Cut a slab of melon and pretend that you still love me Carve out a pumpkin and rely on your destiny Get in your car and cruise the land of the brave and the free

But don't forget to understand exactly what you put on the tree Don't believe the florist when he tells you that the roses are free

Take a wrinkled raisin, and do with it what you will Push it into third if you know you're gonna climb a hill Eat plenty of lasagna 'til you know that you've had your fill Resist all the urges that make you wanna go out and kill

But don't forget to understand exactly what you put on the tree Don't believe the florist when he tells you that the roses are free

Throw that pumpkin at the tree Unless you think that pumpkin holds your destiny Cast it off into the sea Bake that pie and eat it with me -

> 10 minutes and he gets a pound

Come on, that's the least effective use of anyone's time I've ever heard of.

it might not be a waste, especially if this becomes popular. if we all unite maybe we can stop organized lawful mass harassment over cellular telephony!

Don't forget he is just watching TV on his couch while doing it. He doesn't have to put on a uniform or commute anywhere. He doesn't even have to be actively participating in the conversation - just mumble a few things to keep them talking while he makes a sandwich or browses the internet...

Before I started ignoring unknown numbers entirely, every time I got a scam call I would just tell them I needed a minute, ask them to hang on, and mute my phone while I went back to work. They'd usually stay on the line for 5-10 minutes. A bit tougher with this guy's scheme where there are regulatory requirements for transparency, etc. he's fined for not meeting, but I felt quite satisfied knowing that for 5 minutes, a scammer was taken out of circulation while I just went back to honest work. Required almost none of my actual time.

I’ve recently taken up trying to sell them my own brand of snake oil or the secret to immortality.

Nope, the article states he gets £0.70 - presumably the provider gets the other £0.30.

10p a minute, although checking rates for calling an 0871 in UK from a landline, it can be from 15 to 30p a minute.

Yeah oops, I meant to write minute. Vagued out for a minute there. Slip of the tongue, or fingers as it were.

So a typo.

Wouldn’t a typo be more like mintue instead of minute.

I wrote an entirely wrong word spelled entirely correctly.

Wikipedia has this to say about typos:

A typographical error (often shortened to typo), also called misprint, is a mistake (such as a spelling mistake)[1] made in the typing of printed (or electronic) material. Historically, this referred to mistakes in manual type-setting (typography). The term includes errors due to mechanical failure or slips of the hand or finger,[2] but excludes errors of ignorance, such as spelling errors, or the flip-flopping of words such as "than" and "then". Before the arrival of printing, the "copyist's mistake" or "scribal error" was the equivalent for manuscripts. Most typos involve simple duplication, omission, transposition, or substitution of a small number of characters. (emphasis mine)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typographical_error

Hmmm. Definitely spending way too much energy here.

It isn't an error of ignorance, if you knew it was minute though?

Your quote mentions "scribal error". Your spelling part of the brain knew what it wanted to write. The writing part inserted a different word. Now my lack of knowledge of brain parts is an error of ignorance, so 'spelling part of the brain' isn't a typo.

If you are able to work on something else at the same time, it's free money.

More importantly, he probably has a vastly different opportunity cost than you. If all he was doing was watching the TV, why not make a little extra money for no additional effort?

I guess the feeling that you are being payed, even if a little bit, helps considerably to raise the mood.

Hook it up to a chat bot (as mentioned above), so it takes ~no time after configuration. :)

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