It's interesting how problem-solving paradigms can lead somebody to places they probably wouldn't go otherwise. "... In a wide study to be conducted globally i

It's interesting how problem-solving paradigms can lead somebody to places they probably wouldn't go otherwise. "... In a wide study to be conducted globally in the coming months, Google will try to ascertain what exactly motivates a web user to install an ad blocker..." I have many friends who train people. We agree on some things and disagree on others. What I find among some of my trainer friends is that if I disagree with them, the problem must be that I haven't been "trained" enough. They use training to change the world. If the world doesn't look like it's supposed to, then time to do some more training. Google are data folks. If their business model doesn't work any more? Must gather more data. Why do people install ad blockers? If we could only identify the top 3 drivers, then make some kind of short-term trade with them to prevent this behavior (The kid of short-term trade that looks good in the beginning but sucks for the user later on.)? We can fix this. We must be careful that we don't approach problems already knowing what the solution is. This is especially tough in an established and crazy profitable industry. If your tool is to give people free stuff while collecting data to present them with ads, when presented with a problem, odds are that your solution is going to involve giving people free stuff while collecting data to present them with ads.