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Book Review: Drive
Just read Daniel H. Pink's Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us and I really liked it. Four out of five stars... and the missing one is just that they didn't go into quite the depth I wanted them to go into.
I don't know why I wish there was more to this book, but I kind of do. Still, it is one of those books where it presents something very simple and not always intuitive and you go... huh. Why didn't I think of that before? Kind of... some of this I got intuitively, but having it spelled out logically was kind of nice.
The basic premise is that people have an intrinsic desire to do good work. That the old economic model of carrots and sticks can actually do harm in the case of jobs that require creativity, versus the old assembly line jobs that were just 'do a certain set of clear steps'. That money and bonuses beyond what they need to live and do what they want with their lives can actually destroy or depress that desire.
I mean... being retired, I know that money for work depresses my motivation to do that. I have absolutely no desire to write code anymore. Period. One thing I really liked was that the fact that we've kept our child's allowance as a completely independent thing from his chores was vindicated in spades by this. Allowance is good for money management. Chores are simply a way to learn how to live with others and do things the right way. This book's good about pointing out that if the allowance is contingent on the chores, then the chores become onerous, something you have to get *paid* to do. Which was the experience I had as a kid, which is why I won't clean a house to save my life, now. *laughs* I'll pay someone else to do it.
Interesting thing is being able to now apply what I've learned from this to my painting and my writing. That getting paid *after* the work is done, especially unexpectedly can only help motivation. So I may well avoid the path of commissions and just go with "buy what I have already done if you want." We'll see.
Anyway, I liked it, though I kind of found the 'exercises' in the back to be more perfunctory than I wanted.
I don't know why I wish there was more to this book, but I kind of do. Still, it is one of those books where it presents something very simple and not always intuitive and you go... huh. Why didn't I think of that before? Kind of... some of this I got intuitively, but having it spelled out logically was kind of nice.
The basic premise is that people have an intrinsic desire to do good work. That the old economic model of carrots and sticks can actually do harm in the case of jobs that require creativity, versus the old assembly line jobs that were just 'do a certain set of clear steps'. That money and bonuses beyond what they need to live and do what they want with their lives can actually destroy or depress that desire.
I mean... being retired, I know that money for work depresses my motivation to do that. I have absolutely no desire to write code anymore. Period. One thing I really liked was that the fact that we've kept our child's allowance as a completely independent thing from his chores was vindicated in spades by this. Allowance is good for money management. Chores are simply a way to learn how to live with others and do things the right way. This book's good about pointing out that if the allowance is contingent on the chores, then the chores become onerous, something you have to get *paid* to do. Which was the experience I had as a kid, which is why I won't clean a house to save my life, now. *laughs* I'll pay someone else to do it.
Interesting thing is being able to now apply what I've learned from this to my painting and my writing. That getting paid *after* the work is done, especially unexpectedly can only help motivation. So I may well avoid the path of commissions and just go with "buy what I have already done if you want." We'll see.
Anyway, I liked it, though I kind of found the 'exercises' in the back to be more perfunctory than I wanted.
no subject
Very cool video. Thanks, Ross. The author's also given a TED talk on the subject. It's got more of a business cast, but does talk about "narrowed focus" as an explanation for why carrots and sticks hurt creative work.
I talked to some startups and labs after my last job. One thing that struck me during that was just how unconvincing I found those traditional incentives. I'm not sure it's quite true that I have absolutely no desire to write code anymore, but it's *certainly* true that I have no desire to do it to excess for someone else or for pay. Period. It took me a while to realize that. The mastery and purpose aspects are something else, but there are so many interesting options there...
no subject
Book had it, though, that commissioned works were just not quite as creative as those that weren't, and you're not looking for a completely uniquely new work of art from her.
I can paint something like what I've painted before for a commission, but... doing something completely new is kind of stressful and tricky. And sometimes odd when I'm not in the mood for hedgehogs or bamboo. *laughs*
Ooo!! Neat about the TED talk!!
*grins at the last paragraph* Yes. There are so *many* interesting options out there... and, yeah... it may well be "to excess" for me, too, but I have this shiny fiction thing I like doing, too, now. *laughs* Modeling without quite as thorough a set of functionality tests...