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People do stupid shit like this all of the time.

Folks are trained to get many types of products for free. I've seen similar cases where businesses refuse to pay for things like licensed information that have a clear and obvious value.



Because once I need to pay for something, I need to get my boss's approval, and then he's going to ask all these stupid questions.

(Not me specifically, but I've been there in past places.)


Clear and obvious to who? What makes you believe this is not a Dunning-Kruger effect on your part? Do the customers have the same special insight you do?

Most importantly, is it more likely that you're not as well informed as you think you are, that you don't fully understand the competing priorities at play, or that the business is actually being stupid, as you say?


Thanks for the message board psychological analysis.

In the example that I was loosely referring to, and are not at liberty to discuss in further detail, companies must pay to be qualified to bid on a specific type of business.

Firms that license some specific information are far more likely (on the order of 50%) to successfully bid. This information is clearly disclosed to them when they get qualified.

So they make a voluntary, significant investment to participate in a process, and then fail to take a simple step that would make them far more likely to make money. I call that dumb, but perhaps I am in fact too incompetent to make that assessment.


Sorry, I don't mean to provide an armchair psychological insight here. I'm just trying to play devil's advocate. While in your specific case your position might be justified, I think there's value in pointing out that many misunderstandings about customer behavior are due to Dunning-Kruger on the part of people selling them things :)




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