Bent incentives | Seth’s Weblog

Who’s Nicole Bennet and why does she maintain calling me?

A number of instances a day, a voice pretending to be somebody named Nicole rings my cell, and in a petulant, entitled voice, insists she’s calling me a few mortgage that I by no means utilized for. I’ve by no means interacted, I block every quantity, however the calls maintain coming.

AT&T actually has the expertise to dam calls like this, however they don’t have an incentive to take action.

On the identical time, many subscribers to this weblog don’t obtain their emails as a result of Google has a transparent incentive to maneuver the emails to the promotions folder. Google advantages by forcing entrepreneurs and writers to pay them for entry to of us’ consideration.

Merged medical practices have an incentive to cost sufferers extra, push medical doctors to work much more unreasonable hours and reduce corners on medical outcomes.

Instagram has an incentive to make folks really feel as if they’re falling behind until they adhere to the algorithm. And Amazon has an incentive to denature the enterprise mannequin of most of their retailers by charging for promoting, despite the fact that they know the advertisements serve neither retailers nor clients.

Tim Wu is our greatest explainer of how, with out boundaries, networks at all times spiral uncontrolled. His new e book is twenty years too late or precisely what we want proper now.

However we don’t want any extra Nicole Bennet, thanks.

January 23, 2026