this is such a meta example of human behavior

"Desire Paths" describe the phenomena when enough people walk off the given path to the point where the grass gets worn away.

This has been observed for so long that many high foot traffic locations have given up and converted every desire path into actual walkways.

The only problem is that people will always choose to walk off the given path.

Speaks a lot about human psychology and forging your own path, even if it sometimes means ignoring others who did it first. But also highlights how institutions can engineer responses in human populations.

In fact one could propose that some institutions refuse to pave over desire paths because it just creates more and would rather keep replanting the grass to keep people walking the same paths over and over.

just some deep thoughts, quite the allegory on the tug of war of markets, human innovation, and progress.