4. SeamlessWeb

4. SeamlessWeb

SeamlessWeb is the brilliant invention that allows us Generation X’ers to continue our avoidance of telephone use by instead placing food delivery orders online. Who wants to walk outside to the dozens of restaurants in a 2 block radius when you can keep staring at your computer screen and have the food come to you! And we wonder why Americans are obese?

For investment bankers, we are given $25 every night and $50 on weekends to spend on SeamlessWeb. We are told that these dollar amounts are “a limit, not a goal.” Obviously we adhere to this saying very strictly and are sure to only order the essentials such as six bottles of water and a couple red bulls. This $25 every night helps us save plenty of money since we don’t have to pay for dinner during the week. Non-bankers may think, “Wow that’s great, that money really adds up,” which is very true. But it also means that we are at the office every night of the week for dinner. It’s like giving a little kid ice cream after drilling in his mouth for cavities. To the other kids who just see little Billy with ice cream this seems like a great deal, simply going to the dentist to receive the ice cream. But they don’t really the pain and suffering Billy had to go through for that ice cream. Some bankers may go to the office for an hour on the weekend just to pickup that free $25 meal, but I value my freedom much more than that. $25 for an hour of my free time is too little, I’m more high end, like one of Spitzer’s women, minus the whole being a female thing.

I don’t want to complain about free food since it saves me a lot of money and is a nice little bonus. I simply want to point out the lazy lifestyle SeamlessWeb has created. It’s bad enough that people our age text and IM instead of call, but to not even be able to call a restaurant to place an order? How are we going to develop the skills to speak in front of an audience or in a meeting if we don’t even want to hop on the call to order delivery? I’m also just really jealous of the people who came up with the idea of SeamlessWeb because it’s a gold mine. They provide a sweet, easy-to-use interface and in return take a cut from all these restaurants. I want to think of a get rich quick idea like this instead of spending my days “livin’ the dream” in the land of investment banking. Hmmmm……