this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2026
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When I'm bored, I get price quotes from Lyft and Uber to the airport. I'll click around and look at the different tiers of service. Then I choose not to actually request a fare, and close the app.
I fly enough to where both apps probably have me as a regular airport customer, but that I'm price sensitive enough where I just won't use their service sometimes.
I do the same with Doordash and other food apps, where I just put together potential orders to get a sense of how much something would cost if I ordered it, and then just never order it, letting that cart expire. I'm hoping this poisons their data or adds something to the price sensitivity metrics.
I also look at airfares, hotel prices, etc., a lot. It's not for the purpose of manipulating their algorithms, as I just like to get a sense for how prices move over time. But if there's a side effect that these variable pricing algorithms take into account people who window shop and walk away, maybe I'm helping push prices down.
If they're gonna create a panopticon, we should fuck with their data.
The problem is this sounds like a job to do it regularly just to throw off their algorithm.
Yeah, you're probably right. Still, if big tech's ad behavior (ads for stuff you've already bought, ads for things you'd never buy but might have looked up information about for non-consumer reasons) is any indication, I'm not actually sure they're using really sophisticated techniques here that can't be thrown off by one-off bored sessions.
Got a point there. If it's equally sophisticated it may be tricked easily.
Yeah, my first thought was that such a system was likely gameable.
But then my second thought was that idgaf what any of the McDonald burgers cost. The price they'd need to set to get me to "buy" them wouldn't be economically viable for the company because I have no clue how a "pay customers to take our burgers" scheme could work out favorably for them.
At least where I live, what they cost is 'way too much'. You can get a meal from a decent restaurant for the same price, and their burgers have shrunk considerably.
I remember even when I still thought I liked them, I'd never feel satisfied after finishing a meal. For a while I mistook that for meaning I liked the food. Like "oh I just had one but want another already, must be good". But no, I think now that it was just a sign of my body being well aware that it didn't have enough nutritional value to meet its needs.
I've had other occasions where I'll finish a combo and wish I had more with other fastfood places, but it's not a constant experience like it was with McDonald's.
Hell, that time they did that 2 big macs for $2 (just the burgers) deal, I bought 4 of them. I was full by the end of the 3rd and gave the 4th away but still wasn't satisfied, I just couldn't physically fit any more in my stomach.
Anyways, all that to say that any price is "too much" for those empty calories. But yeah, it used to be ok for "something quick and cheap to put in your stomach on a long drive" but even that is no longer the case.