> Reporter: "Why is it hard to cure cancer?". Crowd: "Would there be enough of a financial incentive to do so? Seems like a prime startup opportunity!" What yo

> Reporter: "Why is it hard to cure cancer?". Crowd: "Would there be enough of a financial incentive to do so? Seems like a prime startup opportunity!" What you want to optimize for is the money amount that you make at some quantile of the probablity distribution of the profits; say, the profits that are guaranteed in the best, say, 3 %, 5 %, 10 % or even 20 % of all possible outcomes. With a probablity of 97 % (if you choose the best 3 % of the outcomes), you won't make sufficient money if you attempt to cure cancer to be worth the risk, so the financial incentive is not there. TLDR: Financial incentives do matter, but work differently from how many people think that they are structured.