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Comment by abstract_put | Hacker News Reader

A personal friend is this form of executive assistant. I think that's effectively exactly what they signed up for - a very wealthy couple pays them to do whatever needs to be done. Delegating everything explicitly seems like it would significantly reduce the value of an assistant.

My understanding is once the trust is built in these kind of roles, the assistant is a professional/personal boundary crossing extension of the employer and is prized for their ability to resolve concerns without those concerns having to surface. Agreed that it can be a demanding, temperamental, unpredictable job.

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There are a lot of people in this thread who seem outraged because someone is expected to have skills they don't have. I personally know both people who are, and people who have, this type of help.

There are people in this world who are very good at empathizing and very good at organizing, and those people can make a ton of money as what used to be known as being a majordomo.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majordomo

This is definitely a weird thread in that regard. Maybe people aren't appreciating how many people will do all sorts of things for money? The more outrageous requirements require a more trusting relationship between employer and employee, certainly, and a skilled EA (or majordomo, it seems) is hugely valuable.

My EA-style friend is in a major US city right now supervising the construction of a house - that absolutely wasn't in their employment contract, is not something they have experience in, but it's something their employer wanted. It's hard to get too up in arms when the position is well paid, exciting, and voluntary.

I think the background outrage levels are abnormal, doesn’t take much for someone to be on tilt.

Could also be some folks thinking if you earn enough to afford an assistant than you earn too much.

People that think like that are setting themselves up to be a lifelong loser.

Paying an EA is no different than paying McDonald’s to cook for you. Outsourcing things you can afford to is how we have a productive society.

If someone can make $800k a year pouring their life into their job and delivering tons of value for customers, that’s great. They should do that even if they spend $100k on an EA.

I’d take 50 highly productive people over 50 clock punchers any day. Demonizing them is just tall poppy syndrome.

My friends daughter is only 17 and quite radicalized, detests anyone who can afford a home, car, etc. It’s quite sad.

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