Capitalism doesn’t work by reputation- if I develop a feed formula for cows that makes their shit more beneficial as a fertilizer, then Monsanto and others will beat a path to my door. (Unless they steal it, but same thing.)
The incentives come from money, and as Vespasian said, “Pecunia non olet.” (Money does not stink)
If you’re talking about someone working for a large company and designing something mundane but better, the incentives may be more diffuse, but I don’t believe that lost purposes are so terribly entrenched that the incentive is effectively invisible.
In my personal experience, designers/innovators working for companies are never rewarded for making their company more money. Sometimes their bosses are. My boss got a $20,000 bonus when I saved NASA $40 million.
What?
Capitalism doesn’t work by reputation- if I develop a feed formula for cows that makes their shit more beneficial as a fertilizer, then Monsanto and others will beat a path to my door. (Unless they steal it, but same thing.)
The incentives come from money, and as Vespasian said, “Pecunia non olet.” (Money does not stink)
If you’re talking about someone working for a large company and designing something mundane but better, the incentives may be more diffuse, but I don’t believe that lost purposes are so terribly entrenched that the incentive is effectively invisible.
In my personal experience, designers/innovators working for companies are never rewarded for making their company more money. Sometimes their bosses are. My boss got a $20,000 bonus when I saved NASA $40 million.