A short story

Last month our neighbor George, a 45 year old electrical engineer, after spending a few days trying to fill out his tax return, finally gave up and went to one of those big agencies to get professional help. Of course, it was very useful and accordingly the price was almost as big as the additional amount he received thanks to the professional help. Little did George know that my mom, a 60 year old woman, had just retired after spending 10 years as a taxing inspector. The only thing that was standing between George and my mom were a few floors in or apartment building, and the lack of a way for George to figure out if someone living nearby is a secret expert in tax issues.

In spite of my mom's extensive knowledge of the tax laws, she was left helpless last summer after our bathroom light stopped working and simple lightbulb replacement didn't help. After spending six months without a bathroom light, my mom finally got a friend of my uncle's to come home from the other end of the city and fix the light. If only my mom had known that our 5th floor neighbor George builds lights and other electrical devices for a living...

The point of the story is that our world is still extremely inefficient despite the enormous ease of access to services and products. There is still a missing piece that prevents us from functioning as best as we can. And that piece is simply other people. We are constantly surrounded by experts in various areas and people with tons of free time and one way or another we would benefit from each of those people if only we knew them. We often end up spending way too long trying to fix or solve a problem and then we pay far too much for services that would do that for us. Finding those services is sometimes hard, expensive or even impossible. Time is money. If one can quickly find help offered by someone nearby for a reasonable price, one can save a lot of time (and, thus, money).