Skip to main content

On misplaced incentives

 A few years back a recipe site would be like this:

Google recipe --> Click --> Find recipe

Now, it is like this:

Google recipe -->Click-->Irrelevant story of the recipe -->Irrelevant picture ---> Still more irrelevant stories about the recipe --> Please check out my other recipes-->Useless version of recipe ---> Some more random pictures or ads --> and after what seems like 17 scroll downs is the recipe hidden away in the footer. 

Obviously scroll through links pay in ads or page views I guess.

Last week I went to the bank for a minor service issue. One of the "customer service" persons helpfully walks up, hears my problem so empathetically I actually make the mistake of thinking it is solved - and then helpfully says, "Sir, close the account and open another one"

And after waiting for ages - when nobody could care about - suddenly on realising I was there for something more than a service issue - a swarm of people became interested in me - the kind that happens when you step out of a railway station and a swarm of taxi drivers want to take you to your destination at an exorbitant cost. Clearly bank folks are incentivised to open accounts, deposits, insurance and what not. 

In both cases the incentives are misplaced - leading to the wrong kind of behaviour. 

But, why is it so difficult to someone to think differently? 

And thats why I like those who share recipes on instagram without all the random introduction and family stories and fake nostalgia.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The power of jotting down ideas

 Long long ago, I always used to carry a small letterpad with me. To jot down ideas that might occur. Over the years, it has changed from a notepad to evernote to google keep, but the power of jotting down ideas is immense.  Small ideas go into keep.  Anything to be quickly typed goes into whatsapp as a self message.  Bigger or better formed ideas go into Google docs A few are still written, but I manage to copy them into a digital format sooner rather than later.  But the power of jotting down is immense. My google keep is an encyclopedia of ideas - most of which may never get implemented. 

No conferences

Decided not to attend any conferences this year. Atleast not the typical ones I have often ranted about here. Will be both choosy and intentional about which ones to attend.  The ones to attend are the ones put up by practitioners of a craft. The rest is marketing one way or other. 

And the unconference happened

 Most conferences have an agenda. No, not the stated agenda, but an agenda of marketing, airtime to sponsors, ensuring the past and future customers are invited, of ensuring that the "stars" of the industry are invited and attention showered of them. All in all it is a your scratch my back, I scratch your back syndrome. Some of these become cliques and claques and therefore the real point behind a conference is lost. And then there is the unconference - organised and run by the alumni of the ISABS ODCP program. And as the name suggests, this is truly an un-conference organised by the alumni, for the alumni. No funders - except the alumni themselves. No sponsors. Just the team.  I havent seen a more tastefully organised conference (yes, its an unconference).  To begin with - the location - not a typical star hotel, but an outdoorsy place. The food - simple. The welcome - personal. It was like a homecoming. The setting was warm and welcoming. It was a smaller conference. Ju...