The third book is about incentives, which are the patterns of what is rewarded and what is punished.

The dynamics of what is incentivized and disincentivized in a group is a primary force in determining how that group behaves. When those incentives are aligned with what the individuals actually want, the output can be far greater than the sum of the parts; when they are misaligned with what the individuals want, the results can be far worse than what any individual in the group would ever choose themselves.

It is also a perspective to help with understanding one’s own actions, why one is not acting in line with one’s reflected goals, and how to change the path of least resistance for yourself (or other agents).

If we can’t see the effects of incentives, many parts of the world will confuse us. The essays in this book will apply this lens to a number of different parts of the world with the goal of better understanding them.

The authors of these essays all participated in a community that awards social status for writing and for insight, and their essays were then selected by a quadratic-voting procedure.