TIL about the Cobra effect, referring to a time in the British Raj when people were offered a bounty for every dead cobra. Soon, ppl started breeding cobras for a reward which in turn forced the government to stop the rewards. In response, people released their captive cobras into the wild.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perverse_incentive
#til #todayilearned
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1j7lurh/til_about_the_cobra_effect_referring_to_a_time_in/
@todayilearned Someone in OK told me a similar story about a pair of brothers who trapped feral hogs for money. They’d remove them from a rancher’s land, collect their pay, then breed them and release them on someone else’s land... then trap them, get paid, breed some more. But the guy who told the story had a cowboy hat and a mustache and a voice like Baxter Black, and I wasn’t sure if it was a tall tale.
@todayilearned brilliant. A superb metaphor for any poorly thought out target or compensation scheme