Skip to main content

Things that are free have no value

When something is free, it has no value and people treat it as such. When I worked at a great hospital in Boston, we used to offer free printing to everyone in our small division -- 1000 people were generating printing costs of $100,000 per year.

So we put a program in place so that when people sent a job to the printer, they had to go to the printer to release the job with their username/password (this was also important for HIPPA reasons -- can't leave patient records on the printer tray). This allowed us to see how much people were printing.

After one year we had some pretty good stats on how much everyone printed, so we told people that we were going to start charging $0.01 per page for back and white prints and $0.07 for color. We also gave everyone an "allowance" of $50 a year, and we displayed their balance on the screen when they released their print jobs.

Out printing dropped by 75%.    It wasn't that anyone was deprived -- no one ended up having to pay us for more printing -- but because we assigned a value to something that was previously free -- people treated it like a precious resource.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Preventing accidental large deletes.

Instructions for Developers on Using the safe_delete Stored Procedure To enhance safety and auditability of delete operations within our databases, we have implemented a controlled deletion process using a stored procedure named safe_delete . This procedure relies on a temporary table ( temp_delete_table ) that lists complete records intended for deletion, not just their IDs. This approach helps prevent accidental deletions and provides a traceable audit log of delete actions. Why We Are Doing This Controlled Deletions : Centralizing delete operations through a stored procedure reduces the risk of erroneous or unauthorized deletions. Auditability : Using a temporary table to store complete records before deletion allows for an in-depth review and verification process, enhancing our ability to confirm and audit delete operations accurately. Security : Restricting direct delete permissions and channeling deletions through a specific proced...
Post a Comment
Read more
 In software engineering, accumulating code behind a release wall is akin to gathering water behind a dam. Just as a dam must be built higher and stronger to contain an increasing volume of water, the more code we delay releasing, the more resources we must allocate to prevent a catastrophic flood—major bugs or system failures—while also managing the inevitable trickles—minor issues and defects. Frequent, smaller releases act like controlled spillways, effectively managing the flow of updates and reducing the risk of overwhelming both the system and the team. The ideal of ci/cd may not be achievable for all teams, but smaller and faster is always better.
Post a Comment
Read more

So You're Looking for Work in Tech

So You're Looking for Work in Tech It's a more competitive market than it's ever been—but don't despair! There are still plenty of jobs out there for humans who can demonstrate insight, creativity, and the ability to execute. Here's a practical guide to help you prove you can do just that. 0. File for Unemployment (If Applicable) If you were recently laid off, file for unemployment right now . This won’t help your job search directly, but it will help you financially. Get that support—you earned it. 1. Buy a Domain and Invest in Yourself If you don’t own a domain, buy one today. Get a GSuite (Google Workspace) account and start using a professional email like yourname@yourdomain.com . Avoid using email services like GoDaddy, Zoho, or Office365. Google is the gold standard—invest in the best. 2. Hire Yourself Give yourself a tech project—because this is your job now. Choose a project that will add value to your life while forcing you to learn new ...
4 comments
Read more