shoot for the gold

1. cop-out and accept the minimum prize, for doing no work

2. do what is lucrative instead of doing your job

In contrast "go for the gold" means try and risk failure for the possibility of greater achievement.

Required to pick a research topic in order to move up in academia, he decided to shoot for the gold with "people with AIDS suffer more infections than other people" instead of picking something, like, intelligent and interesting.