Deserve What You Want is munger's principle: the surest way to get something is to deserve it. It sits in the Cognition dimension (COG) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™ as element HBT-COG-0230, within the Strategy family. The core principle: munger's principle: the surest way to get something is to deserve it. In incentive terms, it matters because it changes the payoff people perceive before they choose — which means it can be designed for, or exploited.
Scientific Definition
Munger's principle: the surest way to get something is to deserve it.
Plain-English Definition
Munger's principle: the surest way to get something is to deserve it.
Feynman Explanation
Earn the result. The shortcut path is the long path.
Core Principle
Munger's principle: the surest way to get something is to deserve it.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
Munger's principle: the surest way to get something is to deserve it.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Sustainable career and company strategy.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
Earn the result. The shortcut path is the long path.
Examples
- Building real capability beats positioning for the role you want.
- Sustainable career and company strategy.
Pending editorial review.
Original analysis from The Incentives Lab — how this element behaves inside real payoff structures.
Why this element matters to incentive design
This is one of the elements leaders describe as a values gap. It is a payoff gap. The mechanism underneath it is straightforward: munger's principle: the surest way to get something is to deserve it. You can recognize it in the field by its signature: earn the result. The shortcut path is the long path. Every element in the Cognition dimension changes the perceived payoff of an action before the action happens, which is exactly where incentive design has leverage.
How it gets exploited
Left undesigned, sustainable career and company strategy. It is amplified whenever sustainable career and company strategy. Inside organizations that shows up as sustainable career and company strategy. The pattern is the same one Goodhart's Law describes: the measurable proxy attracts the effort, and the purpose behind it quietly loses funding.
How the Lab designs around it
The redesign move is to ask: 'What would make us obviously deserving of this outcome?'. Watch for it at the boundaries: handoffs, promotions, incident reviews, and budget cycles are where this element gets its power.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Ask: 'What would make us obviously deserving of this outcome?'
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.
- Ask: 'What would make us obviously deserving of this outcome?'
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.
Basics first (health/finances), then depth (mastery/impact), then altruism (widening circle).
A problem whose solution requires people to change their values, beliefs, or habits — not just apply expertise.
Holding a different — and correct — set of tools than everyone else.
Someone who incites others to take illegal or rash action, often to expose or discredit them.
Sun Tzu's ancient treatise on strategy, deception, and positioning.
Conflict between belligerents with very different resources and tactics.
Start from the desired future and work backward to the steps that make it inevitable.
Winning the disputed population, not just defeating the visible opponent.
Countering hostile narratives with truthful, well-timed alternatives.
Sort situations into Clear, Complicated, Complex, Chaotic, or Confused — each needs a different response.
Eroding the will to act, even when capacity remains.
An act committed to look like it was done by someone else.
Where Deserve What You Want is cited in the corpus
Essays, field guides, and diagnostics from The Incentives Lab that apply this element.
- EssayGoodhart's Law in the Real World
How measurable proxies capture judgment.
- EssayThe Perverse Incentives Hiding in Your KPIs
Cognitive shortcuts turned into scorecards.
- EssayAI Agents Inherit Your Incentives
How this element propagates into automated systems.
- ReferenceThe incentive glossary
Definitions for every mental model, bias, and fallacy in the corpus.
- CourseIncentives 101
The free ten-part primer on reading a payoff structure.
- ReferenceThe Periodic Table of Human Behavior
The full 1,267-element map this page belongs to.
Questions about Deserve What You Want
- What is Deserve What You Want?
- Deserve What You Want is munger's principle: the surest way to get something is to deserve it. It sits in the Cognition dimension (COG) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™ as element HBT-COG-0230, within the Strategy family. The core principle: munger's principle: the surest way to get something is to deserve it. In incentive terms, it matters because it changes the payoff people perceive before they choose — which means it can be designed for, or exploited.
- What is an example of Deserve What You Want?
- Sustainable career and company strategy. The Incentives Lab catalogs everyday, organizational, and historical instances of this element on its Human Behavior Taxonomy™ page (HBT-COG-0230).
- How is Deserve What You Want exploited?
- Sustainable career and company strategy.
- How do you design around Deserve What You Want?
- Ask: 'What would make us obviously deserving of this outcome?'
- Which behavioral dimension does Deserve What You Want belong to?
- Deserve What You Want is classified in the Cognition dimension (COG) of the Human Behavior Taxonomy™, family "Strategy", class "Mental Model". Its permanent identifier is HBT-COG-0230 and its evidence grade is B.