As an amateur writer, and a lover and hater of tech, I am always scouring the internet to stay updated on what is brewing in the world of Big Tech. And let me tell you, for every ten articles I read, at least one promises to make me rich with some magical side hustle.
My Medium account (which I even pay for) looks like a graveyard of “passive income” clickbait.
Here’s a gem I came across:
His money making idea:
“Use AI to generate ideas for people…”
Followed by a whole list of crap, barfed up by a GPT.
Seriously?
Since when did generative AI become creative?
Like I’m going to stop working, and have ChatGPT come up with a list of lame ideas, which I then need to sell off to the highest bidder?
Who are you even trying to kid, mister?
Do you know how many newsletters there currently are with the name “TechTonic Shifts”?
And at the time, every “respectable” generative AI bot came up with the same name…
For a long time I was even thinking of removing the “f” to make it stand out.
Q.E.D.
Read: Lobotomized AI* | LinkedIn
But here’s the thing. We get bombarded on a daily basis with so many of these so-called success stories, that it starts to mess with our heads. And slowly, the idea creeps in to your brain that a side hustle is a legitimate way to ditch the grind and make bank.
Well. This story is here to tell you that they are not.
This, my dear intelligent friend, is the Gig Economy.
A land of opportunity, they said.
Be your own boss, they promised us.
Flexibility, freedom, empowerment, blah blah blah.
None of that is true. Not even close.
It is a system where apps promise us freedom and flexibility of where and when you want to work, but it delivers exploitation. The kind that would make even medieval serfdom look quaint. It is a world where the lines between employment and hustle blur so badly, that you forget there’s supposed to be stability on the other side. Meanwhile, tech bros cash in, and from the money they make off of you, they are sipping hazelnut lattes and congratulating each other on “disrupting” labor.
Well, they didn’t disrupt a darn thing.
They just made exploitation scalable.
So, I thought it would be a good idea to dedicate todays TTS post to this subject and investigate the messy, app-powered hamster wheel that traps workers in a cycle of low pay, high stress, and zero security.
Welcome to the real gig economy.
Where freedom is an illusion.
So I am going to rip the shiny façade off this beast and see it for what it really is.
More anti tech-establishment after the commercial brake:
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Freedom is just a marketing slogan
Let’s start by talking about this supposed “freedom”. Gig work means that you can log in whenever you want. In theory that is a bliss. Except for the fact that you have to log in. And stay logged in. Because if you don’t, some algorithm, which is designed by a dude (like me) who’s never held a real job, decides you’re not “reliable”. Next thing you know, is that you’re not getting assignments.
Poof.
Gone.
Autonomy, my ass. This isn’t freedom. It’s just chains without the clinking sound.
And those ratings? Oh, the ratings.
Modern-day serfdom is very much alive and well, and your livelihood depends on some Karen’s ever-changing mood swings. One bad review because Karen’s latte wasn’t frothy enough, and your text promised it would be?
Congratulations, you’ve been algorithmically ghosted.
No appeal possible.
No conversation.
Emails go unanswered
Just you and your five-star dreams, which is now dead and buried. Dashed on the jagged rocks of some tech bro’s indifference.
Ratings are the new whip.
The latest hustle. Getting paid up to $50 to train an AI
Let’s talk about companies like Out-lier. Their name alone should give you a warning signal. Those shady, bottom-feeding operations in the “business” of feeding AI models fresh content because, the internet has been stripped to hell already.
Outlier, and its equally dodgy cousins like Epoch AI and ContentMines, they do not want innovation or quality pieces.
Nope sure-ee.
They want you to crank out a steady stream of absolute garbage, with a human touch. Reviews, articles, random crap, so the AI of their customers can eat, burp, and spew it back out in the form of content that nobody asked for.
Sounds grim.
True
But, oh, I am just getting started.
Check out this dude… Even his last name is a mystery. ☝️ Looks very legit, huh?
These shady operations target the desperate and the naive. They promise you a good hourly wage to do their dirty work. “Earn $21 an hour writing reviews!” they scream on TikTok and “Earnings: Up to $50 per hr, and incredibly flexible hours” on LinkedIn.
Sounds like a dream come true, and when I first came across it, I was tempted. That could be a nice side-husslte. I can write a bit, and what if I get paid per hour to write articles. I don’t care if it ends up in the AI meat grinder, cause it will end up there one way or another. Until I realized that “hourly wage” means something different in scamland.
After doing some research I found lots of workers, who were sharing their experience.
And also on LinkedIn: “after hours of unpaid training, they were told my output was low quality”. Their $21/hour dream turned into $10/hour nightmare. And you only get compensated for the minutes they were actively on the testing page.
Activity can be measured in multiple ways. For one they count the time you are active on task pages and then there’s the real activity counting, which is based on keystrokes, character counts, submission rates, session login, and even mouse activity.
This is the ultimate tool for cracking down on slacking at work.
Even my posts won’t help you out here: 17 AI prompts to fake your way until new year’s day | LinkedIn
And in the meantime, you are busting your ass off researching and writing content for hours that will never pay you a dime.
Oh, and they pay you in crypto.
Because what better way to prove your operation is totally above board than paying out your sweat-shop workers’ earnings in a digital currency that is about as stable as a drunk flamingo in a hurricane.
And their marketing pitch…
People like Jean Philippe A. (A for Ass-whip) will slide into your DMs on LinkedIn with vague promises of revolutionary AI engines blah blah blah and cutting-edge tech, yada yada yada. They will do some name-dropping of “random experts” that they are supposed to be working with. But their ability to verify contributors or provide legitimate credentials is as strong as a limp biscuit.
One of their reps approached me directly and ghosted faster than my Tinder matches after I asked a few hard questions. Emails to their support team lead to dead ends.
Marketing is clueless.
Authentication processes?
Nonexistent.
This is scam hour.
But if you have time to waste and self-respect to burn, those jackals will gladly take both (apologies to the mammals).
Otherwise, run. Far and fast.
The Pay? Let’s call it what it is – modern day slavery
The pay…. Or should I say, the scraps. Gig workers earn less than minimum wage once you factor in the stuff you need to live, like food (gotta live), gas bills when you have to travel to get to your gig (Fiverr), maintenance, insurance, and the occasional parking ticket because your app told you to double-park in front of a fire hydrant.
Benefits?
Schmenefits!
You get the benefit of being your own boss. Isn’t that enough?
No paid time off, no healthcare (if you are in the U.S.), no workers’ comp when you twist an ankle rewriting Karen’s review. Just vibes and your bank account who drops below zero.
Then there’s also the psychological toll.
You are always on edge.
Waiting for the next ping of Liers-Out or Fiverr. Or praying that the next gig isn’t across town during rush hour.
This is not a job! It’s a goddamn slot machine.
You keep pulling the lever, hoping for a jackpot, but all you get is peanuts.
Maybe. If the app feels like it.
And all along, your anxiety skyrockets, and your self-worth plummets.
Fiverr – because that’s what you’ll earn per hour
Fiverr is the “freelance” marketplace that kinda started the Gig Economy. On the outside it seems like a sunlit marketplace with its shiny promise of job-opportunity, and flexible hours. It resonates well with the younger generation. But it has a darker side that’s hard to ignore.
Freelancers have piled up complaints about delayed payments, and endless client disputes, and of course wages that are so low they would make a Pakistani sweatshop blush. Not only is making a living on Fiverr tough, they have also rigged the game against you. And if you thought quality mattered, think again. It’s a bit like Monopoly. There’s the lure of big bucks, but all you get is thrown behind bars, can’t collect your money. Fiverr’s algorithms shamelessly boost cheap, fast work over skill or expertise. Hard-earned skills become bargain-bin commodity.
Dive into Fiverr reviews on Trustpilot, and you will get a much better picture of the ugly world behind their shiny homepage. Freelancers speak of being hung out to dry, or blackmailed by buyers who are demanding extra work under the threat of bad ratings.
Fiverr’s support is practically non-existent.
Yeah, you get to talk to a chatbot.
Well, we don’t want to talk to your chatbot!
Sellers feel abandoned because the platform leans heavily in favor of buyers. If you have a dispute, chances are that it’s probably getting “resolved” in the buyer’s favor. Add in a customer service black hole and basic issues like locked email accounts, and you’ve got a recipe for freelancer misery.
Then there are the true horror stories. One freelancer shared how a client scammed them while Fiverr’s support flagged them as the problem. The job was apparently creating an AI-dubbed audio track. The client handed over garbage data, which made the work near impossible. But instead of stepping in, Fiverr threw the freelancer under the bus. And let’s not forget their dubious “success score” system. High ratings, glowing reviews doesn’t matter, because your score can still nosedive.
It is a true Kafkaesque nightmare that you have signed up for.
This is a platform that is hell-bent on squeezing every ounce of value from freelancers and offering nothing tangible in return. If Fiverr is your main hustle, god forbid, you need to get used to navigating a minefield.
This is global feudalism
Gig workers who live in developing nations are getting paid pennies for the same work. Some genius in Silicon Valley decided it was fair game to outsource exploitation, like colonialism 2.0 but with more Wi-Fi.
And those CEOs are flying private jets to climate summits, where they are telling us how green their apps are. Sure, buddy. Tell that to the gig workers who can’t afford to fix their cars because they’re too busy paying for gas.
But some workers are fighting back.
Forming digital unions even.
And pushing for legislation.
Taking on these tech overlords in court.
But it is David versus Goliath, except David’s slingshot is broken, and Goliath has an army of lawyers that are billing by the second. And governments are doing their best impression of a deer in headlights.
Regulating the gig economy is like trying to catch smoke with your bare hands.
Good luck.
The gig economy didn’t invent worker exploitation. It just packaged it in an app and called it innovation. And we ate it up because it was convenient. We wanted our cheap rides, our fast deliveries, our instant gratification. So, yeah, the tech bros deserve the blame, but so do we. Every time we use these platforms without questioning the cost, we’re complicit. And that’s a bitter pill to swallow.
Signing off from the hamster wheel of hustle hell.
Marco
Well, that’s a wrap for today. Tomorrow, I’ll have a fresh episode of TechTonic Shifts for you. If you enjoy my writing and want to support my work, feel free to buy me a coffee ♨️
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