Alignment: making the system want what you want.
Alignment is the whole game — for people, organizations, markets, and AI.
Everything in this primer points to one move: align the incentives the agent actually faces with the outcome the principal actually wants. Do that, and most "behavior problems" stop existing.
This is also why AI alignment is the most important version of this old problem. An AI optimizing a proxy will exhibit perverse incentives the same way a Soviet nail factory did — just faster, at greater scale, and with less recourse.
You're ready. Pick something real and use what you just learned.
The applied version.
Alignment is the project of the century. Every problem you'll work on for the rest of your career — from compensation design to climate policy to the safety of frontier AI — is some version of this single question: how do we make the agent want what the principal wants?
The Incentives Lab's working stack for alignment is four moves, applied in order. Map — write down the actual reward structure, not the stated one. Pressure-test — run the pre-mortem and find the cheapest cheat. Redesign— change the default, the friction, the frame, or the payout to eliminate the cheat without killing the upside. Measure— instrument a balanced scorecard with a counter-metric for every headline metric, narrated quarterly. The four moves are simple. The discipline of doing them in order, on real systems, against political resistance, is the actual craft.
This is also why the Lab exists. The vocabulary is freely available on this site — every term, every example, every case study. Thecraft requires a cohort, a coach, a curriculum, and the professional pressure of presenting your work to peers who will tell you the truth. That's what the Incentives Academy is for.
The graduates of the program don't just understand incentives. They are the person in the room who can name the structural problem, design the fix on a napkin, and defend it against the executive who loves the broken status quo. That is the most hirable profile of the next decade. We built the certification to manufacture it.
Run Diagnose-Me-Now on a situation you're stuck on, or open the Atlas to wander. Either path will deepen what you just learned.
Your final three weeks: an end-to-end alignment redesign on a real system, defended in a live capstone review, and (if you pass) certified in Incentive Intelligence™ for life.
- →Capstone — a fully designed Map / Test / Redesign / Measure brief on a real system from your work.
- →Live defense in front of cohort + Aaron Bare + a Consortium reviewer.
- →Certification credential, alumni network access, and listing on the Incentives Careers job board.
What's the single most reliable way to change behavior in any system?
Write your one-paragraph alignment plan. Pick a system you can change. State the outcome you want, the agent who acts on your behalf, and the one reward you will rewire.
Hint: Format: OUTCOME / AGENT / OLD REWARD / NEW REWARD. One sentence each.
You've finished Incentives 101.
Ready to put your name on it? The 12-week Incentives Academy turns this vocabulary into a working operating system — and you leave certified in Incentive Intelligence™.