Think Like a Freak Chapter Six in the Think Like a Freak book had six practical

Question

Think Like a Freak

Chapter Six in the Think Like a Freak book had six practical ideas at the end
of the chapter regarding the application of incentives to problems/issues.

Please apply these six ideas to the following fact pattern:
1. Figure out what people really care about, not what they say they care about. 2. Incentivize them on the dimensions that are valuable to them but cheap for you to provide. 3. Pay attention to how people respond; if their response surprises or frustrates you, learn from it and try something different. 4. Whenever possible, create incentives that switch the frame from adversarial to cooperative. 5. Never, ever think that people will do something just because it is the “right” thing to do. 6. Know that some people will do everything they can to game the system, finding ways to win that you never could have imagined. If only to keep yourself sane, try to applaud their ingenuity rather than curse their greed.

Mary is a student at an expensive cooking school in Rhode Island. She is
studying to be a chef as she had always dreamed since she was a little girl. As
cooking school went on, however, she started to doubt her goal. Cooking school
was hard work - there were hundreds of hours standing in a hot kitchen, her
clothes and hair were always soiled, and she had gotten burned on many
occasions while baking, frying, etc. She saw her friends in college
infrequently. She saw her family a bit more, but every time she came home, they
asked her to demonstrate what she had recently learned (thinking that would be
fun for her) but it only made her tired, after all, she came home to rest. She
started to worry about money and where she would be able to get work once
school was over. She loved cooking and baking, though, and still thought it was
more desirable than crunching numbers (like her friends who were studying
accounting), and more fun that doing moot court (like her friends who were
studying to be lawyers), and, well, you get the picture.

She started confiding in her counselor at school about her worries and
concerns. Her counselor thought that she should write down what she liked and
disliked about cooking school as a start for an analysis of what to do about
this dilemma. She wrote the list because she needed to try to sort this out
somehow. On the positive side, she wrote down she loved to create things and
was thought she was talented in making things come together. On the negative
side, one of the things she wrote was how much financial impact it would be to
her family if she quit.

If she dropped out now, her parents would be responsible for the tuition for
the rest of the year. However, there was a way she could work for part of the
year and still get school credit (to see if she truly could make it in a real
life restaurant). On the other hand, if she worked, she would have to work
throughout the summer in order to accumulate as many credits as she would need
to go onto to junior year (she is a sophomore).

Her counselor and she met to go over the list. The counselor pointed out that
there were many more positive things than negative on the list. However, the
financial concern was a big negative and could count for ?many? items. Mary had
to think of ways she could soften that impact other than working. The counselor
thought that Mary might stay in school one more year, but Mary thought that
would just mean another year of tuition. Her counselor thought that maybe she
was just tired and needed to rest -- perhaps take a week off.

Mary got annoyed. That wasn?t the answer she was looking for. She was hoping
for real practical advice, not clouds in the sky kind of talk. Mary stopped
going to the counselor. Her Deacon was next. She decided to talk to her. The
Deacon at the school church was very kind and patient. She thought that Mary
was quite advanced for seeking help. The Deacon said that Mary should stay in
school, but did not give her any other advice or help. Huh? She thought, why
was the Deacon saying this? I suppose she does not want to have people drop off
as she works here, Mary convinced herself, and thus rejected the Deacon?s
advices.

Finally, Mary went to another friend who is a successful dry cleaner store
operator. She figured her friend had some of the same working conditions Mary
was facing and the tedium of doing the same thing every day. Her friend advised
Mary to go to the bank and open up an account. In that account, put money in
from selling your old books to start. Then, put the cash in you will get as
tips for cooking at restaurants. You don?t have to pay taxes because no one
knows where the cash came from. I have $40,000 in the bank as a result of my
tips, the friend stated. Mary took this advice in, but did not act upon it.

Mary needs your help. What can you help Mary with in terms of thinking about
what she really wants to do? Applying the six principles, write a few
paragraphs below and let me know your thoughts.

Explanation / Answer

First of all the first idea 1. Figure out what people really care about, not what they say they care about. comes to mind. Mary is saying she loves to cook and she thinks it as fun but is she really thinks it as a fun or there is something else going on in her mind. She might not like the hotness in the kitchen , she might be afraid of injuries and she may have a different perception altogether of herself compared to her other friends. She might think that her lawyer friends or accountant may end up in far better positions than her . So she might really be looking for somebody to tell her that in the future she can become big if she learn cooking well by opening her own restraunt etc.

She took advice from 3 people but disliked the advice of her counsellor and deacon and did not acted on the advice of her friend. She is concerned about finances but she does not take the financially savvy decisions as advocated by her friend.

So I will try to have her say what she really thinks and feels about her situation. I will ask her why she loves cooking? I will state numerous difficulties in cooking and then ask why exactly she chose that option. Not to dissuade her but to check her resolve and know what she thinks. Many a times due to social pressures only people say socially desirable things and I will give her the convenience to let go of that barrage and state out her heart clearly. Then only a progress can be made

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