That example from the mythical man month, however to really put it in context, it would be like hiring 9 pregnant women and giving a bonus to the first one to deliver a baby and aborting the other 8. And yes, that is an overreach because aborting a later term baby is a way more serious thing than canceling a project you've worked on for nearly a year. However, projects that were "late to deliver" were de-funded and it was really hard on the project leaders. When it happened I did not see it instilling in those engineers a desire to work harder and faster next time, rather it just made them cynical and bitter.