I think people love going to sites and search engines and finding information. Yes, it's an online game! A game that, unlike most games, actually means somethi

I think people love going to sites and search engines and finding information. Yes, it's an online game! A game that, unlike most games, actually means something to other people! If I had a cent for every minute that mankind has spent mindlessly playing Tetris or Windows Solitare, I'd be rich. Mechanical Turk is an instantiation of that principle. The money that's exchanged serves as a social signal from the world that your thumb-twiddling is inherently valuable. It's like Clay Shirky's essay on why micropayments don't work, only in reverse. Micropayments don't work because even a tiny payment has big psychological consequences: It sets off our decision-making circuits ("should I really pay for this?") and our reciprocity circuits ("I paid for this, and it didn't make me happy, so you still owe me!"). The result is that we feel a micropayment as a consequential cost, even when the amount involved is tiny. Apply this in reverse and you get the Turk: Give someone a penny for a task and they feel rewarded, even though the reward is tiny.