A fascinating short talk by local professor Barry Schwartz talks about why neither regulations nor incentives will ever be enough to guarantee good outcomes, whether you're talking about economic behavior, judicial decisions, or just regular folks caring about their jobs. Both can be important in avoiding the worst possibilities, but it takes reasonable application of knowledge and judgement -- what he calls "wisdom" -- to produce what we might consider "right" (or moral) outcomes.
Schwartz argues that in the long run, well-intentioned rules can actually lead to worse outcomes by undermining the development of practical wisdom, replacing it with the kind of rote behaviors that have frustrated anybody interacting with a local bureaucracy; similarly, incentives can stand in for our own judgement of what outcomes are really "right." He offers some prescriptions for "remoralization" of the workplace and public space in general; not least is to celebrate those who are demonstrating the moral values we believe in, even in tiny ways. Go, be inspired!
(apologies that I can't retrace my steps to how I found this!)
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