[mindvirus]

I meant what the people are optimizing for. However, even equity has its faults: equity has to vest for it to be worth anything (and later, be exercised for strike + AMT). The expected value of impact could be high, but if they have a higher chance of getting fired and losing their unvested equity, they might not. Many people are risk adverse - for example, would you pay $100k for a 25% chance to win $1 million? Entrepreneurs might say heck yeah, but most employees wouldn't.

I think incentives are part of the solution, but culture is the other part. The organizations views toward risks and failure are going to shape how people place their bets in their career.