This book argues that traditional, unconscious or external motivations — like the drive to meet our basic needs, to procreate, to achieve pleasure and to avoid pain — are insufficient to account for human behavior, contrary to previous assumptions. Rather, we are motivated largely by intrinsic rewards: learning for the sake of learning, doing good for its own sake, and the sense that we are contributing to something greater than ourselves. When external powers-that-be, be they bosses or institutions or the government, attempt to attach “lower” incentives to behaviors that might otherwise be motivated by these higher drives, the results are actually worse than neutral. If we attach an external reward to an altruistic activity, that reward supersedes what otherwise would have been our stronger internal motivation. (Reminds me of Matthew 6:5: “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward.”) Very interesting concept for anyone wishing to figure out how to motivate themselves, or others… and it’s also uplifting, for those who might otherwise have the pessimistic view that we’re animalistic at our cores.

My rating: ****

Language: none

Violence: none

Sexual content: none

Political content: none

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