Scientific Definition
Punishing failure more than rewarding success kills the conditions for innovation.
Plain-English Definition
Punishing failure more than rewarding success kills the conditions for innovation.
Feynman Explanation
We praise the launch. We fire the launcher.
Core Principle
Punishing failure more than rewarding success kills the conditions for innovation.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
Punishing failure more than rewarding success kills the conditions for innovation.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Asymmetric punishment-reward design predicts stagnation.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
We praise the launch. We fire the launcher.
Examples
- Innovation-starved big companies despite stated mandates.
- Asymmetric punishment-reward design predicts stagnation.
Pending editorial review.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Failure tolerance for well-formed bets. Portfolio review.
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.
- Failure tolerance for well-formed bets. Portfolio review.
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.
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Donors penalize 'overhead'; charities under-invest in capacity.
Donors penalize 'overhead' and starve capacity that produces outcomes.
A reward designed to reduce X produces more X.
Squeezing all slack from a system optimizes throughput but eliminates resilience.
'Equal value' exchanges incentivize subjective appraisal gaming to trade low-utility land for high-value public assets.
When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.
Deep specialization improves local output but breaks cross-domain understanding.
Greedy improvement loops climb hills that aren't the highest hill.
When rewards don't match stated values, culture quietly decays toward what is rewarded.
Insulation from risk changes the risks people take.