How Braid, Shaun Tan and Celine Dion reminded me to back up my computer.

[shrydar]

So... I'm meant to back up my laptop once a week. But that involves getting an external drive out of the cupboard, deleting or moving any files I don't want to end up in the backup, and hanging around while Disk Utility starts creating an image so I can give it a password to encrypt the backup with. And I have to do all that between stopping

Comments

[venta]

I don't... also been thinking rather too much about this (why yes, what I'm meant to be working on is difficult, thanks for asking ;) and have come up with an almost workable plan.

1. People know they should back up, but
2. People are rubbish. However!
3. People *know* they are rubbish and are willing to do all sorts of things to trick themselves into being less rubbish.

Examples of (3) are people installing those productivity-aid things which prevent web access during certain hours, or joining a gym because they think the expense will drive them to exercise.

So... here is my new (vending-machine-free) business model:

You subsrcibe to my Helpful Back-up Service for 12 months: the cost of this is a little more than 12 x the cost of (say) a box of muffins. You install my HBS software, which tracks when you do back ups.

Then, every month, if you've done (say) 3+ back-ups (more than 24 hours apart), I send you a box of muffins. If you don't, I send you an email saying gosh, you idiot, I'm eating the muffins that are rightfully yours, because you're too rubbish to have them.

[rabbit1080]

(why yes, what I'm meant to be working on is difficult, thanks for asking ;)

yeah, i had that today too. which is why i'm now the proud new owner of a meat-grinder, wot i used to make gazpacho soup. it is effectively still summer here after all.

[rabbit1080]

ps. i especially like the negative-reinforcement bit of the business model cos i'm mean. :-)

[shrydar]

That's brilliant! No refrigeration devices to maintain, and regardless of whether or not the customer backs up their data, someone gets muffins!

[venta]

Yup! And, due to inherent rubbishness, I reckon that a good chunk of that time the someone will be me :)