>Conclusion: we don't want to pay related to the value we receive for a certain service, but to the amount of effort involved in the delivery of that service.
I don't think that's a fair conclusion. There's much more going on here.
Locks are security for people. If I call a locksmith and he takes over an hour to open or fix my lock, I think, "Oh, good, even a professional is going to take some time to get through this. It's pretty secure!" If the locksmith is done in 10 minutes, I think, "Holy shit! With the right tools and know-how, someone can completely bypass my security in ten minutes!" This isn't so shocking around here, because most people on HN know just how vulnerable most security systems can be. Many people will not have that knowledge and be comforted by a locksmith taking longer.
Also, when you hire a locksmith, you usually watch the locksmith do his work- either because you're locked out of something and have to stand around uselessly, or the guy is in your house and it shouldn't take too long. This makes you invested in his effort- if it takes an hour, you watched the locksmith work for an hour. It's hard not to pay, given that you saw how long it took, and how he was working at it.
The same standard doesn't seem to apply elsewhere- if my steak takes an hour rather than twenty minutes, I'm not going to pay more for it, I'm going to complain to the manager. If the oil change takes too long, I'm not going to be happy about that, either. If I buy a cabinet, I usually don't care if the carpenter took 10 hours or 20, I'm going to want to pay based on the quality of the cabinet.
I think your conclusion is true in some situations, but it's definitely not universal to all work.
However, if you were watching someone prepare the most exquisite steak, and it took lets say a full hour to trim the meat, get the pan ready and properly buttered, cook off the edges of the steak, etc, and you were sitting there watching the chef go through this metiMaybe we just care about seeing the complexity in an operation for it to have value.culous process, then perhaps you wouldn't be upset that it took so long--and most likely would enjoy the steak more, having seen the entire complxex and careful process to cook the thing.
Similarly, if an oil change was a complex operation and you watched the mechanic half-dismantle your car to change whatever needed changing.
Or if you watched a programmer bounce around the screen in vim for 20 hours; coding, testing, tweaking, and debugging.
> If I buy a cabinet, I usually don't care if the carpenter took 10 hours or 20, I'm going to want to pay based on the quality of the cabinet.
I don't think that is true if you comissioned the cabinet or watched how to make it. I have seen the irrational behaviour several times in action in different scenarios: painters, landscapers, carpinters.
I don't think that's a fair conclusion. There's much more going on here.
Locks are security for people. If I call a locksmith and he takes over an hour to open or fix my lock, I think, "Oh, good, even a professional is going to take some time to get through this. It's pretty secure!" If the locksmith is done in 10 minutes, I think, "Holy shit! With the right tools and know-how, someone can completely bypass my security in ten minutes!" This isn't so shocking around here, because most people on HN know just how vulnerable most security systems can be. Many people will not have that knowledge and be comforted by a locksmith taking longer.
Also, when you hire a locksmith, you usually watch the locksmith do his work- either because you're locked out of something and have to stand around uselessly, or the guy is in your house and it shouldn't take too long. This makes you invested in his effort- if it takes an hour, you watched the locksmith work for an hour. It's hard not to pay, given that you saw how long it took, and how he was working at it.
The same standard doesn't seem to apply elsewhere- if my steak takes an hour rather than twenty minutes, I'm not going to pay more for it, I'm going to complain to the manager. If the oil change takes too long, I'm not going to be happy about that, either. If I buy a cabinet, I usually don't care if the carpenter took 10 hours or 20, I'm going to want to pay based on the quality of the cabinet.
I think your conclusion is true in some situations, but it's definitely not universal to all work.