Ask HN: Would you pay for this?
So, I've been doing this anti-procrastination experiment with a friend over the last few months, and I'm wondering whether it would work as a product.
When I'm working I have a VNC viewer showing my friend's desktop, and likewise he can see mine. I check it out from time to time, and if he's browsing the web or watching movies, I send him a message in gtalk asking to stop. This simple method has been close to 100% effective in stopping us both from procrastinating, over the last few months, because it works on social pressure that humans understand well.
I'm thinking of turning this into a product somehow. Perhaps allow multiple people who wish to avoid procrastination to be "watched" by few human operators, and charging a monthly subscription for it.
Is there a market for this? At which price point?
10 comments
[ 0.23 ms ] story [ 35.3 ms ] threadFor it to work properly both parties really need to be in sync and want each other to stop the other from procrastinating. But even then there is a privacy issue that can be difficult to overcome. In my opinion I don't see much of a market for this.
Re: the social accountability mechanism - good idea.
I don't see much of a market for this either. Definately use it if it works for you and your friend/collegue.
However, it absolutely cannot be done by watching my desktop, you've got to think of a more innovative way around this problem. Maybe just monitor my ports, etc.
Also, the reinforcement should not be in a freaky way (e.g. the movie The Game). Sending messages is OK, but there could also be a site where the aliases of best and worst are displayed and people can track their progress, like a version of Nike's running site. I would pay marginally for such a service, ~$2-3/month.
For privacy concerns, you could open source the monitoring tool, but still charge for the service. With the log data you mine, you could generate productivity reports and the like.