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Comment by kaashif | Hacker News Reader

Concentrated harm and distributed benefit is a recipe to have a few vociferous complainers and many silent beneficiaries.

People who believe they've suffered a grave injustice will be much louder.

The best algorithm and least complaint-inducing algorithm are distinct.

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> Concentrated harm and distributed benefit is a recipe to have a few vociferous complainers and many silent beneficiaries

A fascinating example of this with queuing humans is the Disney Fastpass system (1). I think the real design goal to avoid "complainers" is to try and optimize the wait time for your resource to avoid a bimodal distribution and try and spread it out for the average rider, rather than make wait times worse for the majority of people but better for the people who game the system.

(1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yjZpBq1XBE, yes this is an 1:45 long video on the history and a simulation of Disney parks, but its worth the payoff.

The "harm" in this case is potentially a few seconds added to an elevator ride. I think there is another psychological effect to consider. Once you've boarded an elevator, you're no longer really 'waiting'. Even if an elevator takes you on a longer trip than necessary it might not be as annoying as a longer elevator wait. And ultimately, elevators are not ran by democracy. If the algorithm benefits thousands of employees in an office then any complainers will probably be told to shove it by the office staff.

Nobody likes being stopped at a red traffic light but we all understand they're a necessary evil so we don't crash and kill ourselves.

Unless the C-levels complain, then the algorithm will be changed to make them happy.

On the other hand, drivers sometimes take absurd risks to save what amounts to a few seconds at most. You better believe people will complain if that wait is imposed on them after they get to the button first.

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