Elliott Temple, no-hope musician, is one of the people we follow in this roll call of people aspiring to be more important, richer, and more drugged up than they were last year. Tim Middleton is another one, a businessman without work because he can’t get anything with a salary that would cover the nanny’s wages. Adding a few minor chores to her TASK LYST is Alice Seeger, who sees the potential to earn bigger money if someone takes over the mundane matters of life, like grocery shopping, or fetching coffee and bagels.
The new site Task Lyst cashes in on the gig economy. A cross between personal ads, a food delivery or taxi site - and a nicely anonymous platform, this draws the attention of all kinds of people. Alice is among the executives asked to check out the site and see if it’s worth big investment. Who knows where the California startup might lead? Alice doesn’t know Elliott is, as well as accepting a job to damage a car for revenge, delivering all kinds of suspicious parcels around the Chinese neighbourhoods, spying on and reporting on wives who might be having affairs, and spotting who enters AA meetings. All for hire, all for bitcoin. From Task Lyst advertisers.
Tim Middleton talks a good fight, as they say, making himself sound more important and experienced than he is. Still, he spends inordinate hours at his drone filming hobby, so maybe there’s some way he can cash in on that and keep himself in drugs. The reader can step back and see this online firm going badly wrong, but we do have the advantage of seeing all the pieces of the puzzle. A business journalist analysing why a particular business failed would have the benefit of hindsight, but all the characters know is their own experience and some statistics.
Would you farm out small pieces of your daily life? Pay an ever-changing someone you don’t know and only judge by a rating on the platform and their willingness to accept your rate of pay? Someone walks dogs, sure, but you don’t know what else they do. The inventive story TASK LYST warns of the possible downsides of the internet service economy. Scott Hylbert has, for all I know, recreated the Valley inhabitants, drugs, alcohol, aspirational lifestyles and all. I am not convinced by the romance he interjects, because it seems to be just a convenient wrapup. Maybe other readers will find it more believable. Treat the adventure as a cautionary tale.
Elliott is a struggling musician who is trying to piece together enough cash every month to keep his dream of performing alive while also paying his rent. That’s when he discovered the new app TASK LYST. As a service provider, he sets his own hours, his funds are delivered covertly in bitcoin and the rates continue to grow…but so does his suspicion over the type of tasks that he is being asked to complete. Is the anonymous nature of app-based freelance work enough to abate Elliott’s suspicions…and conscience?
Meanwhile, the glossy new Task Lyst corporation is looking for start-up capital and perhaps an extra way to make the app profitable, by assisting the government in spying on users. Alice Seeger is a smart and beautiful executive who once had a promising future in Silicon Valley, but a few bad investments have put her on the edge of being fired and saddled with a lifestyle that she can no longer afford. At first glance, Task Lyst seemed like an app to pass on…until she discovers it’s dark underbelly which makes it more appealing financially while also being an enormous legal liability. She must test her own professional judgment against her morals in determining at what price she finds her own success.
This gig-economy thriller takes a look at the on-demand service industry, and it’s shady possibilities. Apps have become all-encompassing in our fast-paced modern lives and their utility is undeniable. In this gripping thriller, we follow the many sides, shades and shadows of the app economy and test the question: how far is too far?
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