Make the Right / Positive Things Easier to Do than Wrong / Negative Things | /en/2018/05/right-easier-than-wrong/

Guest *Joshua Goldberg* @ 2018-05-04 04:09:25 originally posted:

Great post, Yihui. Your sentiment on the toxicity of StackOverflow is akin to the status quo bias (Samuelson and Zeckhauser 1988), which hinges on loss aversion (Kahneman and Tversky 1984). Loss aversion is the asymmetrical feeling of losing something an individual has for an uncertain change (which can be seen externally as positive but viewed negatively due to status quo). I think status quo bias is more relevant to the issues highlighted in your post.

There have been some compelling policy experiments where "optional opt-in" (status quo was opt-out) was compared to "optional opt-out" (status quo was opt-in). In the latter case, participation shot through the roof. It seems the status quo heavily influences people's decisions. If we want to motivate "good" behavior, we should employ frictionless methods for users. I believe you intuitively backed into this principle.

Guest *Joe Friend* @ 2018-05-04 16:34:46 originally posted:

Yihui, Thanks for taking your time to layout your ideas for improving Stack Overflow. Our team is paying attention to these conversations and appreciate your commitment to improving the site. I'm taking each of these back to the team for us to consider. No promises, of course, but there is a lot for us to consider here.

Guest *Miles McBain* @ 2018-05-24 04:11:53 originally posted:

Hey Yihui, I got a real kick out of this slide Jennifer Thompson shared with me about Markdown vs LaTeX, you might enjoy it too: https://twitter.com/jent103/status/998440668484722688