3 Oct 2010

Everyday Behavioral Economics for the Geek

Table of Contents

1 The ordering problem

1.1 Technology problems are people problems

  • We often start with the Technology first and the People problems second

1.2 What, is the Geek Ethos?

1.2.1 "Primum non nocere" : First do no harm

1.2.2 "Primum non stultus" : First, don't be stupid (or foolish)

  • http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/stultus (Latin conjugation table for stultus)
  • The problems here are as follows:
    1. People will often pay you for stupid shit
    2. People often don't know that this shit is stupid
    3. Randall's Maxim of the end user -

2 Labor then and Now

2.1 Taylorism through the ages

  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_management
  • IMAGE: Fredrick Taylor ()
  • Fredrick Taylor, father of scientific management
  • The art of management has been defined, "as knowing exactly what you want men to do, and then seeing that they do it in the best and cheapest way.'" No concise definition can fully describe an art, but the relations between employers and men form without question the most important part of this art. In considering the subject, therefore, until this part of the problem has been fully discussed, the other phases of the art may be left in the background. Shop Management (1903 (http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/6464/pg6464.html)

3 We are trained to solve problems

  • At the core, this is the heart of Engineering

3.1 Correction: We are trained to solve a certain class of problems

  • Experts at relational theory, refactoring, testing methodology
  • People don't come with debuggers (I often times wish they did…)

4 The Right Tool for the Job

4.1 We like our tools and our tool set

  • IMAGE: Series of drills while these all may be drills, only one of them is good for working on your tooth In this manner, the right tool for the right job is important
  • IMAGE: EMACS vs. VIM vs. IDE (obvious pandering here)

4.2 So what is the tool for working with and Editing Humans?

DETOUR - We're going off the rails for a bit

5 Rhetoric (Someone thought about this)

  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhetoric
  • the art of using language to communicate effectively. It involves three audience appeals: logos, pathos, and ethos, as well as the five canons of rhetoric: invention or discovery, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery

5.1 Parts of Rhetoric

5.1.1 Logos

  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logos
  • it became a technical term in philosophy, beginning with Heraclitus (ca. 535–475 BC), who used the term for the principle of order and knowledge

5.1.2 Pathos

  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathos
  • Pathos (pronounced ˈpeɪθɒs or ˈpeɪθoʊs; Greek: πάθος, for "suffering" or "experience;" adjectival form: 'pathetic' from παθητικός) represents an appeal to the audience's emotions.

5.1.3 Ethos

  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethos
  • Ethos (pronounced ˈiːθɒs or ˈiθoʊs) is an English word based on a Greek word and denotes the guiding beliefs or ideals that characterize a community, a nation or an ideology. Its use in rhetoric is closely based on the Greek terminology used by Aristotle.

5.2 And there are a tonne of logical fallacies

6 The Geek Argument HandBook

6.1 The appeal to logic

  • IMAGE: Mr. Spock
  • the Proto Geek:
  • Logically, this can't possibly work

6.2 The appeal to Idols

  • The WWJD of argument tools: this is where we say "Yehuda" wouldn't write it that way

6.3 Coercion with collusion

6.4 The threat of failure

  • That's not going to work

6.5 The appeal to abbaonment

7 Understanding the Psychology of humans

7.1 People aren't rational

  • There's math later

7.2 The pattern of human behavior that drives decisions

8 The Economics of human Behavior (The Math)

8.0.1 Human Behavior is often times asymmetrical - often deeply so

8.1 Expected Utility

  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expected_utility_hypothesis
  • Proposed by Daniel Bernouli in 1738
  • the idea here is that people will generally take the better of two options
  • The problem with expected utility is that people don't really behave this way. E.g. 5% chance of 3 weeks in europe or 10% chance of 1 week in Europe, people still take the chance of a 3 week vacation

8.1.1 St Petersburg Paradox

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Petersburg_paradox -Published in 1738 in the Commentaries of the Imperial Academy of Science -http://www.cs.xu.edu/math/Sources/Montmort/stpetersburg.pdf

8.2 Prospect Theory

8.2.1 Gamblers fallacy plays a large part here

8.3 Stochastic Dominance

8.4 Mechanism design

8.5 Randall's Maxim Applied

8.5.1 Anosognosia of Every Day life

9 The Toolbox

  • Okay, so What do I do about it?
  • Use the right tool for the job

9.1 Understand that Understanding is difficult

  • The people you're trying to convince are often times not you, if they were you could send them a patch and a pull request and you'd be done

9.2 Focus on the economics, in their terms not yours

9.3 Use Language that they can understand

9.4 Make it simple to do what you want

9.5 Boil the Frog, don't eat the elephant

  • Often times we focus on major campaigns and refuse to fight the small battles along the way

9.6 Don't shave yak's (where anyone can see them)

10 Books

10.1 Self Insight, Roadblocks on the Path To Knowing Thyself

10.2 Predictably Irrational, the Hidden Forces that Shape our Decisions

10.3 Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

10.4 Drive, The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

10.5 Sway, The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior

10.6 Buy-ology, Truth and Lies About Why We Buy

10.7 Switch, How to Change things when Change is Hard

Author: Randall Thomas <daksis@fallstaff.local>

Date: 2010/10/03 12:52:47