Cobra Effect: When good becomes bad.

COBRA EFFECT

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When the British ruled India, bureaucrats in Delhi concerned about the proliferation of venomous cobras in the city.

So they devised a plan to reduce the cobra population.

They started to offer bounty for every dead cobra.

Initially the plan worked really well.

After sometime, some savvy locals developed a business model:

Breed cobras

Chop of their heads

Turn in cobra heads and collect bounties.

When the government became aware of this, the reward program was scrapped. When cobra breeders set their now-worthless snakes free, the wild cobra population further increased

An incentive designed to reduce the cobra population actually increased it.

Based on this anecdote German economist Horst Siebert coined the term "Cobra Effect".

The cobra effect is the most direct kind of perverse incentive, typically because the incentive unintentionally rewards people for making the issue worse. The term is used to illustrate how incorrect stimulation in economics and politics can cause unintended consequences.

Once you internalize this framework, you see it all around you and in your organization.

Reference:

The Cobra Effect: Good Intentions, Perverse Outcomes

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Short Story Footprints

 One night I had a dream. I dreamed I was walking along the beach with GOD... and across the sky flashed scenes of my life. For each scene I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand... one belonged to me and the other to GOD.

     When the last scene of my life flashed in the sand, I noticed that at times along the path of life there was only one set of footprints. I also noticed that it happened at the very lowest and saddest times of my life. This really bothered me and I questioned GOD about it.

     "GOD, you said that once I decided to follow you, you would walk with me all the way. But I noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life there is only one set of footprints. I don't understand why. In times when I needed you most, you would leave me."

     GOD replied, " My precious, precious child, I love you and I would never ever leave you during your times of trials and sufferings. When you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you.

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