A few years back, the tenants in a Manhattan office high-rise complained vigorously about the long wait for the elevators. Computer programmers were brought in to change the algorithms, but the complaints got worse. New, faster motors were installed at considerable expense, but the complaints continued and many tenants threatened to move out. In desperation, the owner hired structural engineers to estimate the cost of installing additional elevator shafts. The cost of installation along with the reduced rentable space would be ruinous. At this point, the owner's cousin suggested putting mirrors next to the elevators. This was done and the complaints stopped.

People often jump to a particular formulation of a problem. In this case, people jumped to the expensive formulation of actually making the elevators more efficient rather than the alternative formulation of dealing with people's complaints. The latter might have been addressed in a number of ways.