Square do their job

Tipping culture has gotten out of hand. That’s not to say people in the services industry don’t work hard, but when I buy a burrito at a counter and it takes no time to make, it feels a bit strange to be asked to tip 25%. Oh well, that’s life I guess.

I went to a coffee shop this weekend (and happily tipped 20% mind you), and while there, I started thinking about the Square Point of Sale interface. It’s a familiar surface area as I worked on tangentially related products when I was at Square. I wondered… what if instead of currency, you could tip someone by letting them take a break? You could take over their job for an hour.

The fancier the experience, the more absurd this idea becomes. Imagine a world where you eat at a nice restaurant and avoid a $50 tip by bussing plates for an hour. Realistically, you’d need to take over for the waiter. I assume most people would be egregiously underprepared to do this.

For many reasons, I can’t see a world where this gets built, but as with many ideas, it’s a fun thought experiment.

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