Flow Engineering
People don't resist the easy path — they follow it.
In 2003, the music industry declared war on its own customers.
Record labels spent billions fighting digital piracy — suing college students, encrypting CDs, and running guilt-trip campaigns about starving artists.
Their message was clear: people needed to be better. More ethical. Less selfish.
Piracy scaled.
Then Spotify asked a different question:
What if people weren't being selfish — just efficient?
What if the problem wasn't morality, but friction?
The data revealed something surprising:
Pirates didn't primarily want free music.
They wanted instant access to any song, anywhere, without the hassle of managing files or switching devices.
The "crime" was choosing the path of least resistance.
So Spotify built that path — and made it legal.
When music became more convenient to stream than steal, piracy plummeted.
No lawsuits needed.
No moral awakening required.
Just smart system design.
This is Flow Engineering: the art of working with human nature rather than against it.
Don't demand better people — design better paths.
Channel self-interest, don't choke it.