Reverse Darwinism

Homo Economicus is the imaginary human with an infinite ability to make rational decisions. This character doesn’t exist, but is useful in models of how real people make choices. Behavioural Finance focuses on painting a better picture of the more complicated ways we really engage with the world. The idea that businesses focus only on profit is also imaginary. Partly because incentives are complicated. Partly because businesses are imaginary models too. Businesses are collections of real people with real behaviours. The future is unknown, and the consequences of our actions are unknown. “Reverse Darwinism” is the idea that people hire people slightly less intelligent/more controllable than them so that their place is secure. People get promoted till the hit their level of incompetence, or a political ceiling. If someone promising threatens to leave, let them. There is always another promising, less demanding, person to fill their place. This all sounds cynical. My point isn’t that people are bad. It is that merit and profit aren’t clear. People are complicated with inconsistent goals to match an uncertain world.