Feedback Loops

We are out of the ZIRP era, and Ubers and Lyfts are now back to costing the same as a taxi ride. As I’m taking more taxi rides, I’m noticing that taxi drivers drive much more recklessly than rideshare drivers and are also more distracted on their phones. Car cleanliness and politeness is also a hit or miss. 

I theorize the main driver of this difference is feedback. Rideshare drivers get a feedback rating after every single ride and are de-platformed if their rating goes below a threshold (I believe 4 or even 4.5 stars). Taxi drivers have no such feedback loop. 

You can similarly compare restaurants and medical providers. Restaurants are a brutally hard industry - ones that don’t get consistently good reviews from patrons and critics fail inevitably. This also improves the overall quality of restaurants that do survive. Hospitals and doctors, on the other hand, have no such feedback loop. Patients have no good place to check a provider's ratings or even know if a doctor is treating them well. Incompetence and misconduct can fly under the radar, and good skill and service go underappreciated. 

Humans (and businesses made of humans) are ultimately self-serving and incentive-driven. Without an existential feedback loop to ensure quality and price - a free, transparent, sensitive market - that doesn’t incentivize and reward high standards, quality ultimately circles down the drain. 

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