Incentivising

Never understood how the average person settles for less when the goal of life is to attain more. Call me delusional, but I see no reason to be satisfied when the work itself offers the greatest sense of accomplishment.

The next Deep Dive on Substack is available now. Contents include game theory, neuroeconomics, and evolution: structuralist.substack.com/p/obedience-th…

Game theory shows that betrayal is rarely ever personal. Instead, it's a purely rational choice that maximizes payoff. In real life, the only facets holding this cruel calculation at bay are morals and emotional ties. That's precisely why you must treat the people close to you right. Because if you don't, betrayal loses its emotional price. In fact, you would incentivize defection even more because revenge fulfills a mistreated person's desires. Never come across as the pragmatic, Machiavellian leader.

@sergiustrading Truly

@incentivising Yeah, that's spot on. If you treat people badly, they have no reason to stick around and every reason to get back at you. Definitely not worth the risk.

@BonesawMD So wound up and blinded by the personalities of others that the gossiper does not even recognize their own thoughts anymore

Consistently hearing gossip and knowing too much about the personal lives of other people actively makes you dumber; it diminishes your quality of thought more thoroughly than you can fathom. You'd be shocked to realise how much clearer your thinking becomes once you avoid it.

@Polymarket At this point, we may have lost the plot

NEW: Tucker Carlson claims Trump has a “supernatural component” that puts people around him in a “dreamland.”

Neuroscience shows that you must avoid making important decisions under intense pressure. Because, under pressure, brain areas responsible for logic (prefrontal cortex) hold less power over your reasoning. Instead, your reasoning is overtaken by the amygdala and other fast-firing areas: a constant threat assessment aimed at minimizing loss. It doesn't strive for the best outcome. It just aims to survive. And these behaviors are used against you almost daily.

Reject mediocrity

@NoahRyanCo This looks like medieval torture

Cobra pull-ups for offensively good posture. Not for beginners.

Modern stoicism has always been a virtuous way to outsource your responsibilities. "The world is a mess, but that's not in my control, so I'll just focus on my own peace of mind." If your life hack for "stress management" is apathy, nothing can help you.

@VdvVadim "Ensure they deserve it (...)" is not an extreme

@incentivising Feels a bit extreme. Without some level of trust nothing really works at all So is the problem trust itself, or the lack of boundaries around it?

The trusted person is the most dangerous individual in any environment. Once they establish themselves as trustworthy, their actions cease being scrutinized through logic and rational thought. While this potentially augments their output, it also grants them a vicious degree of autonomy. And if this person is not treated well, they are capable of eradicating the whole system. Be careful who you trust. Ensure they deserve it, and treat them accordingly. They hold more power over you than you'd be willing to admit.

@replierrr I advocate for mindfulness, not distrust. I can only show the mechanism. I hold no sway over how one processes and uses that knowledge.

@incentivising You've mentally shortlisted someone to distrust.

@sergiustrading I see how this phenomenon is not very often discussed. It's uncomfortable. Though managers, directors, and CEOs are intimately familiar with it. Even if they cannot precisely name it.

@incentivising Whoa, this is a wild take but I can see the logic. It's like that saying about absolute power corrupting, but with trust as the currency. Definitely makes you think twice about who you give that kind of leverage.

OBEDIENCE: The Viscera of Control How obedience is engineered, why it persists, and how to identify and exit systems designed to contain you. The next Deep Dive on Substack is available now: structuralist.substack.com/p/obedience-th…

Game theory explains how trust is not a feeling but a probability. In every interaction, your brain is running a continuous 'Bayesian model.' Every single new piece of evidence updates your predictions. This explains that trust is not built through pure warmth or shared history, but through variance reduction. The most trusted person in the room is merely the one whose behavior has the lowest prediction error. Because when your behavior stays consistent, the people around you will assume they've figured you out. And that manufactures trust. They will stop checking in on everything you do. They will start taking your word. And they will grant you more autonomy.

@BonesawMD Valid concerns. Unfortunately, barbell bench press is cool as fuck

Barbell Bench Press. Just a pointless ego exercise when the alternatives are so much better for gains & have a much lower risk for pec tears or violently caving your chest in to your spine

The precise reason why most people fail today is that they treat everything as a "one-off." They live week by week and never plan for their future. "Living in the moment" destroyed countless lives, yet no one willingly wants to admit that. And the vicious consequences are felt when it's already too late.

Game theory proves that the most dangerous allies are those whose loyalty depends on a condition you cannot influence. Most loyalty is conditional. It holds because the cost of defection far exceeds the benefits of cooperation. But as the structures change, so does loyalty. They defect and betray. And when you have no grasp over the conditions of their loyalty, their defection is incentivized. Loyalty is a commitment problem.

@louaykebbe Sad reality, yet it happens all the time

I've watched highly intelligent people with every possible structural advantage lose to someone intellectually inferior. While the genius optimized for merit, the latter optimized for positioning. Not skill or resources, nor intelligence, but pure positioning. This made him visible. And most modern environments favor leverage over merit. It's the arrogance of competence, and you must realize that pure merit without an overarching strategy won't get far.