Incentives
People usually follow the reward structure, even when nobody admits what it really rewards.
Field notes on systems under pressure
Daft Choices
Most irrational systems are built from perfectly reasonable decisions.
Field notes on optimisation, incentives, automation and the strange behaviour created when people do exactly what the system rewards.
What this is about
Reasonable moves. Odd results.
Optimisation Failure
Local improvements often create wider fragility.
Institutional Absurdity
Bad processes survive because they make sense to the system that owns them.
Automation Drift
Automation changes behaviour, responsibility and attention long before it removes work.
Pattern library
Recurring shapes of daftness
A working index of situations where sensible choices add up to something nobody quite meant to build.
The Metric Becomes the Target
Measurement starts as a guide, then quietly becomes the work.
The Temporary Fix Becomes the Platform
A workaround survives long enough to become critical infrastructure.
The Temporary Hybrid Becomes the Architecture
A migration phase lasts long enough to become the system everyone has to live with.
The Dashboard Changes the Behaviour
People learn what the display notices and adjust their work to be seen by it.
The Queue Collapses Slowly, Then Suddenly
Backlogs look manageable until a small delay turns into a system-wide stall.
Nobody Owns the Automated Decision
The tool acts with authority while responsibility is passed around the room.
Compliance Replaces Understanding
The form is completed, the risk remains, and everyone is technically satisfied.
The Meeting Solves the Reporting Problem
Status rituals make uncertainty presentable without improving the situation underneath.
Visibility Becomes Surveillance
Observability meant for learning becomes a pressure system, so useful signal gets hidden.
The Policy Outlives the Problem
A rule created for one context survives after the risk has changed.
The Exception Becomes the Process
A bypass created for one awkward case becomes the route everyone quietly uses.
The Pilot Never Lands
A trial continues indefinitely because ending it would force a real decision.
The Tool Buys the Reform
A product purchase is treated as if the organisational change has happened.
Field notes and draft papers
Working notes, not final answers
Some pieces are short field notes. Others are draft papers: useful enough to publish, open enough to keep revising.