“Reward actually narrows our focus and restricts our possibility.”
~ Dan Pink

“In eight of the nine tasks we examined across three experiments, higher incentives led to worse performance.”
~ D. Ariely

so, what does Mr. Pink think is important?

Autonomy: the urge to direct our own lives.

Mastery: the desire to get better and better at something that matters.

Purpose: the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves.

he believes intrinsic drive will win out over extrinsic incentives any day. it’s why hobbies exist. it’s why Wikipedia dwarfed Encarta’s attempt at an online encyclopedia. it’s why Google gives their employees 20% of their time to work on whatever they want. it’s why the video game company i worked for cared more about task completion that keeping you at a desk from 9am to 5pm.

i believe it’s why some students get through med school, land a good enough residency, and end up in a career that pays the bills and allows the lifestyle they’ve always wanted.

while other students become really great doctors.

sure, students in the first group might enjoy going to work just as much as playing on their new yacht. and they’re probably good doctors. plus, financial freedom goes a long way to increasing autonomy.

but… Mr. Pink’s three criteria of intrinsic drive make a triangle that just falls flat if one or two corners are missing.

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