We look for efficiency in the wrong place.
'Itโs very easy for people with an economic or tech background to make assumptions about what people are trying to do and how they choose and where utility maximizes and all this kind of thing, only really to be completely wrong.
[...]
When you pursue efficiency, there are quite a few problems.
When you pursue efficiency, you start looking at numerical or mechanical factors, and of course, in the process, you disregard psychological factors, where the greater gains may be found.
And so you focus too heavily on cost reduction and too little on value creation.
One of the greatest forms of efficiency, by the way, is employing a human being whoโs really, really nice.
Now, this is complete anathema to people in tech, who love to define business processes to make them susceptible to automation.'
(Rory Sutherland on The Knowledge Project)