
Lifetramp: Be someone else for a day - ashwin_kumar
http://lifetramp.com/
======
jaysonelliot
Boy, I was so excited when that search box appeared with the words "If you had
a chance to experience another lifestyle…"

With no hesitation at all, I typed TRUCK DRIVER, and hit "search." All my
life, I've said at one time or another, "if I could just take a couple years
off and learn to drive a big rig, I'd love to see what life would be like."
I've gone so far as to inquire with various trucking schools, but never more
than that. It's just too different, too wildly far away from who I am and what
I do now. How would anyone understand that I left a high-paying tech career
with "no heavy lifting," as they say, to become an over the road driver? Would
I be happy? I wish I could know.

So of course I typed TRUCK DRIVER and hit search. And in a split second,
anticipation turned into unsurprised disappointment. Of course it said
"Whoops. Looks like we couldn't find any mentors matching your search."

Dead end. Sure, there's a place to enter a suggestion, which naturally just
results in an empty-sounding "you're awesome" and a vague promise to "try and
get someone," but no CTA beyond that, or opportunity for further engagement.

Digging around a bit more, there's a sidebar that can be expanded to show some
locations. Clicking on various cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, New
York, etc., the minuscule number of mentors that do exist on the site are web
designers, UX specialists, and the like. I'd wager that most of the people
looking at the site already do things like that. Not much lifetramping to be
had there.

A concept like this could be amazing, if it had a wide network of mentors in
all walks of life. The ones that are there now, though, seem to be variants of
"hip tech worker" or "hip artisanal ex-tech worker." I hope the creators can
get a lot more variety, and most importantly, a lot of mentors.

I'll be watching with my fingers crossed. Still wish I could ride along with a
truck driver for a week.

~~~
Greenisus
My dad is a truck driver, so I've been around that particular lifestyle for
most of my life. I've been in big rigs countless times (the view from that
high up really is cool) but I've never had a chance to drive one. My dad owned
a few trucks at one point but he'd never let me drive. I've never gone on a
long haul with him, but my brother and mom have and for the most part they
enjoyed it.

My observation of the trucker lifestyle is that has a lot in common with
working in tech:

\- long hours for the majority of us

\- its own subculture

\- even its own chat protocol: CB radio :)

But there are a few negatives: it's really tough on your health with only
having access to truck stop food (you usually can't detour to a fancy
restaurant in town when you're hauling a 53" trailer) and lots of time sitting
down.

From what my dad says, though, seeing the whole country is really great, and
he really loves what he does and the strange perks (he used to deliver
chemicals to a gold mine in Canada and would bring rocks with gold on them
back to all the kids in my neighborhood). I'd be curious to try it too. :)

~~~
jkeel
My grandfather was a truck driver for over 40 years. He worked for a few
different companies at during his lifetime but his last was for the US postal
service. He said that was the life for a truck driver. He over drove twice a
week (to and from Dallas, TX x2). I think it's really hard to get a job with
them as a truck driver from what I remember.

Anyways, I love the truck driver culture. Before my grandfather worked for
USPS, I would go with him on trips and we would go to these truck stops that
were more like diners. I'm not sure if a lot of those exist anymore but the
waitress would always remember my grandfather and he would just say, "my
usual". Fond memories.

------
mholt
Can I just say, I wish I thought of this first? Here's a startup that focuses
on connecting people with what they love to do. Of course people will be
willing to pay for the opportunity. The business model relies on fundamental
human passions and cultivating meaningful relationships. This is what "the
daily grind" really should be about: doing what you love with those who
believe what you believe. (Simon Sinek, anyone?)

Anyway, I hope it sees more global availability soon. If Lifetramp is really
all about doing good for people, I expect it will be quite successful. My only
concerns are that A) the price may be inhibitive, and B) the quality of the
mentors may be low. Solve those two problems, then integrate with mobile, and
I bet it'd be well on its way.

~~~
dotmariusz
Lifetramp co-founder here. First of all, thanks for the kind words and
feedback. We just did a small launch in Poland with mentors that we could
easily reach to validate the idea, but we're currently doing what we can with
our limited resources (it's a bootstrapped startup) to grow our mentor
database as much as possible. Watch this space.

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btrombley
Funny, my friends built this company two years ago (and called it lifeswap).
It was well received, but the challenge was high turnover amongst mentors due
to the work involved--it's much harder to mentor someone than just rent your
spare room on airbnb, and probably pays worse. In the end they discovered that
the only way it would work is as a headhunting firm for tech companies, and
decided to build a new company instead.

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normloman
Something rubs me the wrong way about that site. How come all these jobs are
all artsy / techy. Where are all the thankless blue collar jobs? I see game
designer, guitar luthier, and something called "coffee evangelist" but no
janitors.

The whole thing seems like something on Portlandia.

~~~
dotmariusz
Most of the jobs right now are artsy / techy because those people are easiest
to reach from our personal networks and that's where we started signing up
mentors. Feel free to throw a janitor in a suggestion box, we'll try to sign
one up.

~~~
normloman
I don't know any janitors in poland. But think of the possibilities. You could
offer a "Janitor's day in the life" to entitled tech workers. The tagline
could be "Step outside your bubble and see how the rest of the world lives."

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lemming
Nice idea, but I can't figure out how to see everyone in a particular place.
I'd like to look up interesting people near me, regardless of what they do.

~~~
dotmariusz
That's some great feedback, we'll make sure to incorporate it. Thanks!

~~~
beefman
Looks like there's no State field for the US. So there's "Denver, United
States" and "Asheville, North Carolina".

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sz4kerto
I find it quite interesting that most hacker-type people would like to try out
a life without computers and/or with much more physical activity. Someone here
said truck driver, someone else said lumberjack -- I searched for 'bicycle
messenger', my geek friends usually followed similar patterns.

~~~
gensym
I searched for police officer and brewmaster. Got no results, but it did
suggest a "brand editor".

~~~
dotmariusz
Try looking for brewer rather than brewmaster. You'll find Marcin. And yes, we
know suggestions need some improving.

~~~
gensym
Brewer! Makes more sense than brewmaster. I assume that dealing with common
aliases is on the todo-list. Just the ones for "police officer" could be pages
long, and region-dependent.

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wheaties
Evidently porn star didn't have mentors either. Have to admit, if you're going
to put this up on the web, most every 18-21 year old guy I know is going to
put that in. Perhaps you need to put in a few "keep dreaming" on certain
terms.

~~~
facepalm
Why would you want to be a porn star?

~~~
blueskin_
Money, I'd guess. While women make far, far, far more than men, men are still
well paid.

------
btbuildem
> Agriculture is the most important job on the island. Every person is taught
> it and must live in the countryside, farming for two years at a time, with
> women doing the same work as men. Parallel to this, every citizen must learn
> at least one of the other essential trades: weaving (mainly done by the
> women), carpentry, metalsmithing and masonry. There is deliberate simplicity
> about these trades; for instance, all people wear the same types of simple
> clothes and there are no dressmakers making fine apparel. All able-bodied
> citizens must work; thus unemployment is eradicated, and the length of the
> working day can be minimised: the people only have to work six hours a day
> (although many willingly work for longer). More does allow scholars in his
> society to become the ruling officials or priests, people picked during
> their primary education for their ability to learn. All other citizens are
> however encouraged to apply themselves to learning in their leisure time.

(from
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopia_(book)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopia_\(book\)))

------
bemmu
This is going to be huge. This is basically AirBnB for activities, while
managing to not make people feel like they are merely booking a tour.

------
lessnonymous
I always wanted to be a lumberjack. Leaping from tree to tree, as they float
down the mighty rivers of British Columbia. The Giant Redwood. The Larch. The
Fir! The mighty Scots Pine!

But they can't find any mentors matching my search. :(

~~~
Tjodalv
He sleeps all night and works all day!

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ekianjo
Interesting concept, kind of like what we see on TV (I have seen a couple of
programs which use the exact same idea before, so the concept per se is not
new). I guess one of the key issue is when you have too many mentors on the
platform, it will be very hard to get visibility if you want to be one among
the most popular categories.

I have seen some unfortunate descriptions (someone describing themselves as
"growth hacker", omg...), I hope they exercise some curation in there.

~~~
dotmariusz
Every mentor is being screened during the interview, but if someone wants to
call himself a growth hacker, we are not going to decline him just based on
that.

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Thriptic
Awesome idea! but you didn't have any mentors who are fighter pilots or
painters yet ;p

Unfortunately I'm not sure how well this concept will work for non-freelance
occupations. I doubt employers would want randoms coming in to shadow their
employees and risk potential exposure of IP / confidential information, but I
could be wrong.

If that issue can be resolved though, it could be a fantastic way to covertly
job search or look for schools.

~~~
dotmariusz
We don't have a painter, but we do have a muralist in Poland. You might check
it out.

As for non-freelance occupations, Developer Relations Manager in Google Poland
is a mentor, so at least some cool companies don't mind.

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zxlk21e
I think a larger focus needs to be placed on location based navigation. I get
that it's primarily poland right now, but the drill down options for location
are abysmal: [http://lifetramp.com/search?place=Chicago-
Miami](http://lifetramp.com/search?place=Chicago-Miami)

I would be MUCH more willing to hook up in my state than other countries, etc.

~~~
dotmariusz
That's definitely on our improvements list.

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timjahn
I've long had the idea for a web series called "What Do You Do?" that would be
similar to this. Each episode would feature the host doing the job/becoming
the person of a new occupation (like Dirty Jobs but not just for dirty jobs).

Personally, I'm fascinated by this. I would love to experience the jobs of
others, just to learn about them and their story.

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dyadic
I've always wanted to do something like this, and I'm going to be in Poland
(where most of the mentors are) for the next couple of months, so I'm a little
bit excited already.

edit: Or maybe not, you need to be invited before being able to contact a
mentor.

edit 2: I have been invited, thank you Lifetramp

~~~
dotmariusz
Hit us up on team@lifetramp.com or on Twitter and we'll get you sorted out.

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marincounty
I've thought about this over the years, and if I could experience another
guy's life/job for a day; It always comes down to Hugh Heffner--when he was
younger, before AIDS.

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joebo
I am surprised by the name. The word tramp has a negative connotation for me.
I would be somewhat concerned about it being blocked at firewalls or showing
up in my address history.

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madaxe_again
I put in astronaut. :(

~~~
dotmariusz
These are probably not easy to come by as mentors, unless we can get Elon Musk
and his SpaceX program in.

~~~
TeMPOraL
Have you thought about getting Mirosław Hermaszewski, the first and only
polish cosmonaut, on board?

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DustinCalim
This is a great idea. Similar to mholt's comment, I think it needs a foothold
in the sf bay area to really take off.

~~~
mholt
And Utah Valley, the other most fertile ground for tech startups in the US.

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pgt
Great idea. Terrible name. Awesome execution graphically. Will play around
some more later. Keep iterating!

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weewooweewoo
I got way too excited about this just to find out that you actually need an
invite to book a day.

~~~
dotmariusz
Do you need one? Just hit me up with your profile name, I'll get you in.

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MadManE
This kind of thing just makes me happy. I hope it takes off, and wish the best
to the founders.

~~~
dotmariusz
Thanks!

------
Monkeyget
It would be great for children who have a narrow view of their career
possibilities.

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blueskin_
I know what I'd do.

Billionaire.

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dueprocess
I'm working on a similar idea which I hope to launch in a week of so. It's not
the same, but dang, it's in the ballpark.

