Outsourcing
has been the source of great controversy in recent years because of its effects
on the global economy. Yet In a recent
article in The New Yorker, Patricia
Marx addresses a much more personalized form of outsourcing—outsourcing
yourself. Marx, who is a staff writer
for The New Yorker and a professor at
Princeton University, describes how she enlisted the service of strangers to
perform her daily chores.
As a humorist, Marx writes in a
stream-of-consciousness form that makes the article both entertaining and
informative. For example, she writes,
“I’m so inept at delegating that I’d need an assistant to train my
assistant. And who would train that
assistant? Would I have to eat lunch
with them everyday?” Not only does this
style of writing entertain the reader, but it also provides a certain rhythm to
the text as a whole. Next, she also uses
hyperbole to a humorous extent. For
instance she writes that “If you dispatch someone to Costco with instructions
to bring home an assortment of crackers, you will end up with a lifetime
supply.”
Despite the fact that the article
is obviously written in a light-hearted manner, Marx is still able to question
the effectiveness of errand-runner sites like Task Rabbit and Zaarly that provide
strangers willing to perform chores. In
the end, she asserts that the process of outsourcing yourself can be just as
difficult as doing the chores yourself so the process is rather ineffective.
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