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Dan Pink On the Science of Motivation

Rewards? Do you think you do a better job if you are rewarded? Science says not a chance, business says of course we do. Dan Pink says “there is a mismatch between what science knows and what business does.”

Intrinsic motivators vs. Extrinsic motivators.
Autonomy, mastery and purpose vs. Carrots and Sticks.

Who wins?  As soon as a task requires even rudimentary cognitive skills, rewards actually hinder the outcome!

An awesome video and worth the 18 minutes.

People need to drive, not be driven!

Posted in Business.


One Response

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  1. Scott W. says

    That’s a great video Jeremy. Some day in our lifetime, let’s hope that’s how most businesses see things.

    This article by Paul Graham has a similar point, except it’s talking about blogs and open source: http://www.paulgraham.com/opensource.html



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