The iron rule of nature is: you get what you reward for. If you want ants to come, you put sugar on the floor. — Charlie Munger

The iron rule of nature is: you get what you reward for. If you want ants to come, you put sugar on the floor.

Author: Charlie Munger

Insight: We all know this in theory, but then we live the opposite way. We complain that people are lazy, that nobody takes initiative anymore, that kids don't focus—meanwhile we're rewarding the exact behaviors we claim to dislike. The company that pays based on tenure rather than performance gets what it paid for: people who show up and coast. The parent who gives allowance whether chores are done or not learns their kid won't do chores. It's not mysterious. It's just physics applied to human behavior. The tricky part is noticing what you're actually rewarding versus what you think you're rewarding. You want a partner who's more affectionate, so you pull back emotionally when they're distant—but you're rewarding the very distance you dislike. You want to be healthier, so you beat yourself up for skipping the gym, then buy yourself comfort food as a reward—and guess which behavior gets reinforced. The system doesn't care about your intentions. It only sees what gets rewarded. This cuts both ways though. Once you realize you control the sugar bowl, you get real power. Want people who speak up in meetings? Thank them publicly. Want to build a skill? Reward the practice, not just the results. The hard part isn't understanding the rule—it's the patience to actually change what you reward, knowing it takes time for the ants to notice the new location.

Source: Poor Charlie's Almanack, p. 131, 2005