Scientific Definition
Specialize in what you give up the least to do.
Plain-English Definition
Specialize in what you give up the least to do.
Feynman Explanation
Even if you're better at everything, you're not better at it equally.
Core Principle
Specialize in what you give up the least to do.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
Specialize in what you give up the least to do.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Allocate work by opportunity cost, not by capability alone.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
Even if you're better at everything, you're not better at it equally.
Examples
- Org design: who does what based on relative cost, not absolute skill.
- Allocate work by opportunity cost, not by capability alone.
Pending editorial review.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Periodically ask: what should each person stop doing entirely?
Measurement Approaches
Pending editorial review.
Evidence
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
The Perverse Incentive Lens™
How this behavior is exploited — and how to redesign around it.
- Periodically ask: what should each person stop doing entirely?
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Interactive Mini Network
Click any neighbor to re-center the graph and follow the threads of connection.
Knowledge Graph Neighbors
Auto-linked to the rest of the Human Behavior Taxonomy by family, domain, dimension, and shared keywords.
Exploiting price differences between markets for risk-free profit.
The study of how real humans actually decide — bounded, social, emotional, and inconsistent.
With clear property rights and low transaction costs, parties negotiate to efficient outcomes.
Complements raise each other's value; substitutes lower it.
Fixed costs don't scale with output; variable costs do.
Innovation destroys old industries and creates new ones.
Each additional unit produces less marginal benefit.
A long-run planner self in conflict with a short-run impulsive self.
Owning something raises its valuation — sellers want more to give it up than buyers will pay to acquire.
Bad money drives out good when both are legally equivalent.
The mythical fully rational, self-interested, utility-maximizing agent neoclassical models assume.
One party has more or better information than another.