incentivization to solve problems

welcome to introspection ft. harsehaj! ⭐️ i’m harsehaj, an 18 y/o always up to something in social good x tech.

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btw, feel free to reply with topic ideas you want me to write about for future posts.

onto today’s topic: incentivization to solve problems 🔨 

institutions will prolong the problems they’re supposed to solve.

why? well, a hospital isn’t incentivized to shorten your stay there. they maintain a fine balance of giving good enough care so that you trust them and return, but not great enough to get you out of the hospital asap. 🏥 

longer stay = more money for them.

individuals that are genuinely motivated by an intrinsic drive to impact people positively and not the potential for profit either gravitate towards a more startup-y approach where there are less institutional regulations holding operations back, or get eventually sucked into the shiny salary. 💵 

another example to put this concept into perspective: why would your physical trainer want you to get completely fit? that would mean you won’t need their service anymore, so less money for them. obviously, this example is a little more shallow because even from a business perspective, you helping someone achieve self-sustaining fitness probably leads to more referrals and more clients. however, at a larger institutional scale with healthcare and education, this problem exists.

why would educational systems promote the integration of ai and replace a large need for teachers? 🤖 more kids will, as a result, either homeschool or form their own paths set aside from the models that make governments and private schools money.

turns out this concept actually has a formal principle LOL. i googled the first sentence i wrote in this post out of curiosity and discovered the shirky principle. interestingly enough, it highlights the different nuances as to how capitalism actually works.

anyways! my point is that it’s hard to trust the institutions that dictate our lives when they profit off of the longevity of our problems. 🏭️ 

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