Scribd
Upload
50 views1 page

Kafka Index Nadia Asparouhova 1

The document outlines evaluative criteria for identifying ineffective protocols, highlighting issues such as lack of feedback loops, ambiguous success outcomes, and excessive complexity. It categorizes failure archetypes like Kafka and Bartleby, which illustrate how protocols can trap participants or impose unnecessary burdens. The document also discusses successful protocols, exemplified by the Whitehead archetype, which balance power and enhance participant capabilities.

Uploaded by

Prasoon Raj Krishna
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
50 views1 page

Kafka Index Nadia Asparouhova 1

The document outlines evaluative criteria for identifying ineffective protocols, highlighting issues such as lack of feedback loops, ambiguous success outcomes, and excessive complexity. It categorizes failure archetypes like Kafka and Bartleby, which illustrate how protocols can trap participants or impose unnecessary burdens. The document also discusses successful protocols, exemplified by the Whitehead archetype, which balance power and enhance participant capabilities.

Uploaded by

Prasoon Raj Krishna
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 1

Kafka Index

Evaluative criteria for identifying bad protocols


† No (or hidden) feedback loop
† Lack of consequences for failed outcomes
† Outcomes aren’t visible to participants
† No evaluative metrics, or wrong metrics prioritized

† Too many edge cases addressed at once


† Binary success response; participant required to pass
through all use cases sequentially
† No branching or forking of use cases

† No happy path to follow


† Protocol increases the number of decisions that participant
must make
† User error is possible (multiple ways to “plug it in”)

† Success outcomes are randomized or ambiguously defined


† Outcomes succeed or fail inexplicably, even when all
inputs appear to be the same
† Outcomes can’t be debugged or explained retrospectively
by participants
† Multiple protocols exist that attempt to solve the same problem 3 archetypes of protocol “goodness”
† Redundant protocols create conflict and confusion
Kafka — failure archetype
regarding the desired outcome
“I can’t find my way round in this darkness.”
† Recursive, nested protocols Protocol holds too much power.
† Protocol’s complexity is sprawling, with multiple dead ends Participant is trapped in a maze that they
† Participants can get trapped in endless loops or “whirlpools” can’t understand and also can’t escape.
with no resolution Bartleby — failure archetype
† No market or alternatives exist “I would prefer not to.”
† High cost to participate, with no other options available Participant holds too much power.
Maintaining a high level of agency
† Significant costs incurred if participants defect
limits their ability to manage
increasingly complex tasks.
Applying the Kafka Index Whitehead — success archetype
Interactive voice response (IVR) systems for customer service “Civilization advances by extending the
too many edge cases addressed at once; number of important operations which we
no happy path; recursive nested protocols can perform without thinking about them.”
Balanced power between protocol
Overcriminalization, or excessive laws that criminalize
and participant. By relinquishing
civilian behavior, even when no criminal intent exists
some agency, participants are able
no feedback loop; ambiguous success outcome;
to accomplish much more than they
redundant and conflicting protocols; no alternatives
could alone.
Airport security
no feedback loop; randomized success outcome;
conflicting protocols; no alternatives

Thanks to Rafa Fernandez and Eric Alston


[email protected] for coining this term. The Kafka Index was a
summerofprotocols.com collaborative effort, initially developed with
from Nadia Asparouhova, Dangerous Protocols Rafa, Seth Killian, Drew Austin, and others at
ISBN-13: 978-1-962872-11-9 print | ISBN-13: 978-1-962872-37-9 epub the July 2023 Summer of Protocols retreat.

You might also like