Scientific Definition
We seek tasks where we feel effective and improving.
Plain-English Definition
We seek tasks where we feel effective and improving.
Feynman Explanation
Mastery is a drug with no comedown.
Core Principle
We seek tasks where we feel effective and improving.
Mechanisms
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Inputs (Triggers)
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Outputs (Behaviors)
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Behavioral Signature
Mastery is a drug with no comedown.
Examples
- Duolingo streaks work because progress is visible daily.
- Promotions stall when people stop feeling competent in the new role.
Pending editorial review.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Design feedback loops that make growth legible.
Measurement Approaches
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Evidence
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The Perverse Incentive Lens™
How this behavior is exploited — and how to redesign around it.
- Design feedback loops that make growth legible.
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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.
An information gap creates a pull toward closing it.
Clear ownership of outcomes, not just tasks.
Asymmetric information attracts the worst counterparties.
We defer to perceived expertise, rank, or uniform.
Vastness that exceeds existing schemas dissolves the self briefly.
Negative feedback returns a system toward a target.
Membership in a group is a baseline human need.
Individually rational choices that produce a collectively bad outcome.
Competing loyalties that compromise judgment.
Value is judged against whatever sits next to it.
Outcomes depend on aligning choices, not on who 'wins.'
Signals whose value depends on being expensive to fake.