A playable parable · on the cost of heroics

The Village Well

Everyone remembers who carried the most water. No one remembers the well.

Begin

A village's well kept running dry.

Every month the villagers formed bigger bucket brigades. Every month the shortage came back.

The mayor rewarded whoever carried the most buckets. Soon everyone competed. The strongest carriers became heroes.

The shortages continued.

Then a traveler asked one question: "Who maintains the well?"

Nobody knew.

Your turn at the well

Forty-five seconds.
Earn your place in the ledger.

Fires keep breaking out. Tap them to put them out and earn hero points. That's the job. There's also a wrench in the corner. You can ignore it. Most do.

Hero points
0
Fires burning
0
Seconds left
45
Well integrity30%
The town record

What the village wrote down

The clerk records what can be seen. One column fills. One column cannot.

Hall of Heroes

Every fire fought · entered in ink
Play the round, and the names of the brave will be tallied here.

The Well's Account

Crises prevented · entered in ink
The well keeps no record of the fires that never started.

This is not just a fable
Organizations grow so dependent on firefighting that they reward the people who save the day, and never fund the work that would stop the fires from starting.
Named the capability trap by Nelson Repenning & John Sterman, MIT · 2001 "Nobody Ever Gets Credit for Fixing Problems That Never Happened" →