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Comment by xradionut | Hacker News Reader

I just had a call from someone conducting an IT survey. I asked the person, "What's in it for me?, I'm at work, time is money." They were confused and I responded, "I'll do your survey if there's a gift card or lunch involved. You are not a client, nor a friend. Time is money."

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I used to work at a marketing firm and we did occasional phone survey which I would have to listen in periodically to ensure the questions were understandable and getting good answers.

I was always amazed that anybody would spend 20 minutes answering questions asked by some random person for absolutely no reward. I still don't understand why. And our surveys had to be representative of the area demographics so it was not just all lonely, elderly people. It was people of all ages, race, etc.

People are bored, and a lot of people want someone to listen to them.

This is especially true for people with strong opinions.

If I have time I do it because the person on the other end of the line is probably tired of talking to people who are jerks. I worked in a call center before and it is no fun. These people are just trying to make a living so I try to make their day easier if I have some time to do it.

There's one way to go overboard. My 8 year old just asked me to hook up his PS3. I said, "Kid... time is money. What's in it for me? Every day, I'm hustling."

I think people have learned to respect me so much they don't even invite me to parties or funerals anymore. Score!

There's a very big difference between a random caller doing a survey (no connection, no ongoing relationship, no obligation) and your own son, or even between the random caller and anyone close enough to you to ask you to a funeral or party.

Do you really not see the difference between these situations or are you just doing a reductio ad absurdum?

Time is money, family, and self :)

You could try that with tourists asking for directions, too.

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