Charles Hugh Smith·Sep 8Social Media Is Pointless SlagIf we want to understand why a system generates unfavorable output, a good starting place is to identifyA response icon2A response icon2
Mukundarajan V N·Jul 15The Curse of Perverse Incentives“Show me the incentive and I’ll show you the outcome.” Charlie MungerA response icon3A response icon3
Charles Hugh Smith·Jun 25Five Dynamics That Make Sense of an Increasingly Chaotic WorldAs I noted in What Once Explained Everything Now Explains Nothing, the simplicity of either-or ideologies appeal to us. Identifying with an…A response icon1A response icon1
Charles Hugh Smith·Apr 20The Questions Nobody Asks as AI Replaces Human WorkersThat AI will eventually do most of the work for us seems to be a given. Robots doing martial arts (never mind they were pre-programmed /…A response icon15A response icon15
Charles Hugh Smith·Mar 6Perverse Incentives Have Created a Runaway Media MonsterMuch of what we rightly decry as dysfunctional is the result of perverse incentives built into systems not from malice but from the…A response icon3A response icon3
The QHSE Standard·Jan 27The Cobra Effect: Why Safety Bonuses Create More AccidentsA strategic analysis of Game Theory, Behavioral Economics, Second-Order Cybernetics, and the Political Economy of Risk. A forensic…
Charles Hugh Smith·Jan 12Why Is Everything Such a Hot Mess?Why Is Everything Such a Hot Mess? Let’s summarize the consensus views.A response icon6A response icon6
Charles Hugh Smith·Jan 8The Perverse Incentives Dominating Our LivesPerverse incentives are funny things. Even though we know they’re harming us, we can’t stop pursuing them because the refusal harms us…A response icon1A response icon1
MS·Dec 17, 2025Perverse Incentive: How Financial Systems Fuel Family SeparationThe economics of adoption reveal a profound and unsettling contradiction. Prospective adoptive parents in the United States benefit from a…
