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My mother used to run a daycare and she'd do something similar when someone came to inspect the school to make sure it was okay for kids. She'd leave something
by skermes 17y ago
My mother used to run a daycare and she'd do something similar when someone came to inspect the school to make sure it was okay for kids. She'd leave something small (slightly overflowing wastebasket, some loose toys in a hallway) that the inspector would notice in the first few minutes of the inspection. She found that if they got to mark her down for one or two small things quickly they were less likely to go looking for something later and drum up a serious offense from nothing just to have something to write down.
- mbenjaminsmith 17y agoFunny, I used to work with a copywriter who would always leave a simple punctuation mistake in her work so her editor (me) would have something to do. I think she knew if I had to struggle to find something I'd probably suggest unnecessary rewrites.
- stanley 17y agoThese example resemble anecdotes I would typically find in a Dan Ariely talk.
- baltoo 17y agoIn graphical design I've heard this being mentioned as the "Pink Elephant", i.e. "obvious misses" that the client can easily clank down on. This makes it easier to keep the integrity of the overall design.
- wallflower 17y agoIn publishing, non-obvious mistakes are used to detect copying. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictitious_entry http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictitious_entry
- mbenjaminsmith 17y agoThat's pretty cool...