Pink names three drives that he believes speak to our higher values. Pink identifies: Autonomy: the desire to have a say over what we do Mastery: the process of getting better at what we do Purpose: the meaning behind what we do

Financial maximization says that in any decision, the rational choice is the one that makes the most money. This is the underlying “why” behind many of our choices. The right-hand turn of modern life.

Is it a Wall Street world or a Community world? A Prisoner’s Dilemma world or a Stag Hunt world? Part of it comes down to just what we call it. That’s how powerful hidden defaults can be.

“PLA to be world-class force by 2050,” read the front page of China Daily.1 Beneath the headline was a picture of President Xi Jinping and a row of People’s Liberation Army soldiers. The year leapt out: 2050. Distant, but not too distant. Thirty-three years away from that moment. I’ll probably still be alive then. A thought hit me. While China was

Prisoner’s Dilemma and Stag Hunt are two rational but fundamentally different ways of looking at the world. One is competitive: Earth is a planet of people plotting in interrogation rooms against one another. The other is cooperative: if we hunt together we’ll get more food.

The top earners saw their hourly wage climb 27 percent between 1979 and 2016.11 But for the middle class it grew just 3 percent over those same years. Just 3 percent since the Walkman was invented, and as other costs have skyrocketed.

EXPANDING VALUE Bentoism isn’t a utopian clean slate. It builds on the world around us. Like financial maximization, Bentoism strives for rational and measurable principles. Bentoism seeks to expand some of the tools of financial maximization to a wider set of values. And like Adam Smith, Bentoism believes good things happen when people act in

You hear that phrase a lot when it comes to new ideas: “it seemed like the thing to do.” If other people agree—as people did with the high five—it becomes A Thing. There’s no steering committee that gives the green light. There’s no stamp of approval. There’s not a grand design. It just happens. The truth is there is little order. The status quo

But Bentoism also believes that our definitions of “rational” and “self-interest” are too narrow. We think rational value means financial value. And self-interest is all about satisfying our immediate desires. But neither perspective comes close to the full spectrum of what’s valuable or rational. Today’s thinking goes: It’s rational to behave in