Dan Ariely is one of my favorite authors and speakers on behavioral economics, namely, someone who studies the combination of economics and psychology to understand how people decide and why they behave the way they do. I’m an observer. I love to predict people’s behavior and so, this is a fascinating subject to me. I’ve read Predictably Irrational and listened to The Upside of Irrationality and (Dis)Honesty audiobooks - I recommend it all. This short book (just 103 pages) is part of the TED Books series which is a compliment and extension of Ariely’s TED Talks on this subject.
“Human motivation is not simple,” writes Ariely, “but as we understand it more, we’ll better be able to handle ourselves, our work, our relationships, our employers, and our employees. Knowing what drives us and others is an essential step toward enhancing the inherent joy - and minimizing confusion - in our lives.” Every day we try to motivate ourselves. How to create meaning in my current work now? Why I should or shouldn’t quit? What is my end goal? If you’re in the people business or any kind of relationship, surely you spend lots of time trying to motivate others too. How to makes this partnership works? Why does this or that person enjoy life more than others? What are the determining factors of our organization's productivity? These questions and more - if you care enough - are part of our everyday life. As the author puts it: “We are all part-time motivators.” But the problem is that motivations for each person are complex, variant, and subjective. Some are driven by money or achievement or happiness or purpose or a sense of progress or as often the case, a mix of all of these and more. Plus, although Ariely shares valuable insights from the psychological experiments (Bionicles, Origami, and Intel experiments are particularly interesting) that he outlines in the book, we need to keep in mind that real life is not like a lab that we can easily predict but it is both an ugly and beautiful, messy and orderly world. Ariely can be too general and simplistic in his assessments. Keep this in mind as you explore the subject.
Having said that, there are universal and essential motivations that drive human behaviors. For example, a sense of meaning, connection, identity, and individuality. Something simple like giving a compliment or acknowledgment for a job well done can be a strong drive of motivation for most people (on the other hand, it takes a little thing like negative-aggressive feedback can kill even the tiniest motivation!). Some of our conventional wisdom about motivation are also challenged in this book. For example, the idea that giving a large amount of money or bonuses as an incentive, in the long-term, “can backfire and make people less driven.” To know more, read the book or/and watch his TED Talks on YouTube. I also recommend listening to his podcast interviews on Spotify.
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