
Fun Theory - iamelgringo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lXh2n0aPyw&feature=player_embedded
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rdrimmie
So here's my problem with this: How much of the fun is predicated on the
novelty of the situation? After a week, how many people on their morning
commute are loving those stairs? After a month?

Fun benefits tremendously from novelty, but genuine fun has long-term value,
too.

~~~
detcader
If stairs everywhere were pianos, people would go back to using the escalator
within days...

~~~
lkrubner
There was once a skyscraper, decades ago, where people complained that the
elevator was too slow. The workers complained to the managers, and the
managers complained to the building's owners. The complaints grew in
intensity. Finally, the landlord of the building knew they must act.

So they called in a research team to figure out what to do. And the research
team measured everything - how many stops the elevators had to make, what
speeds could be safely managed, the algorithm by which a press of a button
sent an elevator to a particular floor. They also looked at sociological
factors, such as what people did while they waited for the elevator to arrive.

After all this study, the research team made a recommendation - put in mirrors
by the elevators. And the building's owner did. And all complaints about the
slow speed of the elevator vanished. Because now people had something to do
while they waited - they could look at themselves.

And this research had such an impact that it spread, so that nowadays most
skyscrapers have mirrors near their elevators. The novelty has never worn off,
even though, at this point, an entire generation of office workers have grown
up with mirrors next to the elevators.

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Aiox
What if the escalators were removed, the shorter one.

