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Entries

A declassified pattern in the Hiddenry archive.

  • 12 / 12
  • No visual on file
    Incentive Design Entry #0399

    The reason a leaderboard demotivates the middle

    A ranking motivates whoever can plausibly move on it. For everyone whose position is settled, it removes the reason to try at all.

    Master
    The hidden part #0399

    A ranking motivates only where position is contestable. For the settled middle it publishes the news that effort will not change the outcome.

    Open file
  • No visual on file
    Incentive Design Entry #0398

    Why deadlines improve output and lower ambition

    A deadline is met by narrowing the work, not by accelerating it. Delivery improves and the discarded scope leaves no record of having existed.

    Adept
    The hidden part #0398

    A deadline does not make work faster. It makes work smaller, and the discarded version never enters the record to be missed.

    Open file
  • No visual on file
    Incentive Design Entry #0397

    The reason a promotion can be a demotion

    A promotion is awarded for performance in one job and delivered as a different job. The evidence used to select is evidence about the role being left.

    Adept
    The hidden part #0397

    Promotion selects on evidence from the job being left. Nobody collected evidence about the job being entered, and the acceptance is not that evidence.

    Open file
  • No visual on file
    Incentive Design Entry #0396

    Why volunteers outperform paid workers on some tasks

    Payment does not add to an existing reason for doing something. It can replace it, and the replacement is often smaller than what it displaced.

    Novice
    The hidden part #0396

    A small payment does not sit alongside the original reason for doing something. It replaces it, and then has to compete on its own terms.

    Open file
  • No visual on file
    Incentive Design Entry #0395

    The reason an unmeasured task disappears

    Effort is allocated across tasks that compete for the same hours. Measuring one of them does not add attention; it moves attention off the others.

    Master
    The hidden part #0395

    Measuring one task does not create effort. It withdraws it from whatever was competing, and the loss is invisible because unmeasured work has no series to fall.

    Open file
  • No visual on file
    Incentive Design Entry #0394

    Why a strong guarantee shifts behaviour on both sides

    A guarantee moves the cost of a bad outcome from one party to another. Both parties then face different prices for care, and both respond.

    Adept
    The hidden part #0394

    A guarantee does not remove the cost of a bad outcome. It reassigns it, and every party whose price of care changed will adjust.

    Open file
  • No visual on file
    Incentive Design Entry #0393

    The reason peer review rewards caution

    A reviewer who wrongly rejects is never identified. A reviewer who wrongly accepts is named in the record, and the two errors are not priced alike.

    Novice
    The hidden part #0393

    The two errors of review are not priced alike. A missed discovery is anonymous and a published mistake is attributable, so caution is the cheaper mistake.

    Open file
  • No visual on file
    Incentive Design Entry #0391

    The reason a subsidy raises the price of the subsidised

    Who receives a payment and who keeps it are separate questions. Where supply cannot expand, the payment is absorbed into the price instead.

    Adept
    The hidden part #0391

    A subsidy is paid to whoever is named and kept by whoever holds the scarce side. Where supply cannot move, the price does.

    Open file
  • No visual on file
    Habit Loops Entry #0325

    Why removing one object can end a decade-old routine

    A long routine is a chain of small links, and the first link is usually a physical object. Chains do not break where they are strongest.

    Adept
    The hidden part #0325

    The length of a routine measures how far it has been delegated to the room. Withdraw the room’s cue and the delegation has nothing to execute.

    Open file
  • No visual on file
    Habit Loops Entry #0324

    The reason substitution beats subtraction

    Stopping a habit does not delete the cue that started it. The trigger keeps firing on schedule and will find whichever response is nearest.

    Master
    The hidden part #0324

    Ending a habit removes a response, not the cue that requested it. An unanswered cue does not stop asking; it accepts the nearest substitute.

    Open file
  • No visual on file
    Habit Loops Entry #0323

    Why the second week is harder than the first

    The task did not get harder. The novelty that was doing the work in week one has decayed, and nothing automatic has yet arrived to replace it.

    Adept
    The hidden part #0323

    Week one is paid for by novelty and week two is not. The behaviour did not get harder; its funding source expired before the automatic one arrived.

    Open file
  • No visual on file
    Habit Loops Entry #0322

    The reason a habit needs a finishing signal

    A routine with no defined end never registers as complete, so it accumulates no record of having been done and no boundary to be recalled from.

    Adept
    The hidden part #0322

    A behaviour with no ending produces no instances. Nothing was completed, so nothing was counted, and nothing repeats.

    Open file