CSH: This is Rich. He works as a barista at a very unique coffeehouse—namely, one that aims at eliminating the barista. This is a barista who works for a barista-elimination company.

Now, it is common knowledge that when customers ask for something, they are also asking for advice. He gives it, and then … what do they do, Rich?

Rich: They doubt you. I give them a recommendation, and they’ll counter with something else. Ultimately, I convince them that I know about the coffee here, and they enjoy the drink the way I recommended it.

CSH: And I suggested that this was just people’s drive to exhibit their independence. They’re in a double-bind. On one hand, they want your advice; on the other, they feel like it’s slave-like or unmasterly to just take advice on taste. Especially coffee, which is one of these things, like favorite band, that people use to identify themselves. Coffee has now become one of those things we use to define our social identity. These days you have to be a coffee snob, a little bit.

Rich: I’m all about each person having his own taste. In music, in coffee, in food—every person has their own taste.

CSH: Yes, but it’s the requirement of having a taste that I thought was motivating these customers to reject your advice after asking for it. Some people use coffee to belong—they drink Starbucks and that gives them bell-curve respectability. Others use it as a way to individuate, to set themselves apart.

Another topic. It seems that many intelligent, interesting people who majored in something humanly interesting are winding up in service industry jobs—jobs such as barista, which can be replaced by automation. What’s going to happen when these people are laid off? What are they going to do? There will be all these super-intelligent homeless people. How will the ruling class maintain control then, as the teams of unemployed super-intelligent people swell? The answer: Prozac, Universal Studios, and new television dramas. But they also need to eat.

Rich: But robots make jobs—someone has to build and maintain them.

CSH: Right. Like the Japanese auto industry—five guys can run the whole factory. That’s still a lot of people unemployed.

Rich: I guess when you’re part of the new intelligent unemployed working class, you have to figure out some way to create value for yourself—to either become self-employed, or create value in some sort of company in your own way.

Like, for example, you. You’d write a philosophy book. Or something. And start to sell that. Our only mandatory ethical imperative is to make sure that that path of opportunity is still open and available. That’s what America’s founded upon—the American Dream. The only thing that’s really mandated by the Constitution is making sure that the self-employment route is available to every citizen.

For example, my roommate just started a tree service company.

CSH: On the Internet—the soil for all these new micro-businesses.

Rich: Yeah. Anyone can start their own business doing anything, and create their own LLC.

CSH: How did you learn how to do all this?

Rich: Research. It’s not that hard to create an LLC. Just go to the Texas Secretary of State website and fill-out the official forms.

CSH: Do they have a tutorial that gives you all the steps you need to create a business?

Rich: You can find that in blogs; there might be one on TSS website. But the real problem is being financially capable of starting the micro-business. Nowadays, small businesses are being destroyed by big ones. A worker who starts his own business could not afford the lease on a building. Because it’s too expensive, or Walmart buys it all up.

CSH: But many Internet businesses don’t need physical space.

Rich: I think a lot of Internet businesses can be successful. For instance, if you wanted to write a book, you could promote it in your blog, sell it on Amazon, all without having to rely on any commercial property. You could have a stock at your house, or even do one-off publications. That would be a viable method of business. It would be a lot of work for yourself. I know that for musicians (who have the same business model as writers), it’s all about the amount of (promotional) work that you put in yourself.

If you can get with a big label, they’ll take care of all of that for you—but you’re not going to see as much profits. Do you want to get in that machine? Plus, they have a say on your art.

CSH: We don’t need them anymore. Right after desktop publishing came desktop music- and video-production. You used to need tons of money. Now you just need a laptop; the cost of video cameras and microphones is nominal, and the software is free.

Rich: If you know what you’re doing, a whole band can record an album with an iPod. You don’t need a whole room of recording equipment.