What Makes For Success?
[ via Lifehacker.com ]
The above video discusses in an entertaining way the ideas currently in fashion about economics. The premise, that we are irrational beings deluding ourselves of our reasonableness, is confirmed everyday in the news. But this clear presentation is still interesting.
I would change the wording, but in summary, the presentation notes that money and achievement are not related.
What motivates people if not the carrot of money and the stick of unemployment?
- Play. What the presentation calls Autonomy. If you are allowed to play you collect the best of yourself. One company allows its engineers one day a week to do whatever they want, with the sole stipulation that they show the results to the company.
- Learning. What the vid calls Mastery. People want to grow. It is a blessing of human nature. If we grow we are happy. Surprise. It isn’t looks, status, money — they all help of course given our biological predispositions — but it is the desire to be better and fulfill our capabilities that satisfies in the long run. Life is short and learning is long.
- Purpose. I’ll agree with this word. It is really the social impulse, the religious impulse, the tribal impulse. Something larger than ourselves to which we can contribute.
Human beings really aren’t so bad — despite what you see on the evening news. It is the structures we erect, often with good intent, that force us into a self-made Procrustean bed, where we lose control and become the servant of some system, destroying our natural impulses to grow, learn and contribute.
