The heuristic generating the bottom line seems to be trying not to stick out. So, you don’t want to be scapegoatable by not having done your job, but there’s also little appeal and a lot of risk in going above and beyond. So, you check the box, and then you choke to submit.
Except, of course, when metrics and endowment effects combine – e.g. if your initially profitable-seeming business gradually starts failing, you’ll be motivated to generate increasingly creative fraud schemes to keep up appearances. If you used to be a straight-A student, the risk of a B might lead to creative test-taking solutions. Etc.
The heuristic generating the bottom line seems to be trying not to stick out. So, you don’t want to be scapegoatable by not having done your job, but there’s also little appeal and a lot of risk in going above and beyond. So, you check the box, and then you choke to submit.
Except, of course, when metrics and endowment effects combine – e.g. if your initially profitable-seeming business gradually starts failing, you’ll be motivated to generate increasingly creative fraud schemes to keep up appearances. If you used to be a straight-A student, the risk of a B might lead to creative test-taking solutions. Etc.
(Comment cross-posted from here.)