Incentives

[countertorque]

I've been assigned to read "Drive" by Daniel Pink as homework for work. I've made it through Chapter 1 so far (go me). But, it has reminded me of a couple problems with incentives that I have encountered recently.

I backed my first project on Kickstarter, Lex Laser Saves the Galaxy, Again. I think Kickstarter is a cool way to use the internet

Comments

[kelkyag]

Some high-level incentives are not unreasonably priced relative to the market. Prices for a tickets to a private concert are a lot more expensive than downloading a copy of an album.

Some people really like limited-availability cookies like creating or naming a minor character in a book. It's not where I'd spend my money, but I'm not going to argue with people who find it worth their while.

In some cases, throwing a lot of money at a project is about making something the buyer really really wants to happen actually happen. That widgets exist at all may be worth a whole lot more to them than the retail value of a widget, or ten, or a hundred. Maybe they're a huge fan of the author/artist/series/whatever. Maybe it's exactly what they've been looking for but didn't have the skills to design. Maybe it has sentimental value. I wouldn't expect there to be many such projects, certainly not for any given person, but again, not mine to argue about.

[thatwesguy]

It is sad that KS is just a popularity contest and that the money you raise generally just lays for the KS campaign in the first place. Still, thanks for funding Lex, since I'm doing the music, it seems.

Do Kiva. It's not perfect, but it's a damn sight better than anything that money would be doing otherwise.