Tuesday, December 10, 2019
My dad and motivation
I was just thinking about the way that extrinsic motivation-- especially trying to live up to the expectations of others-- can steer us in the wrong direction. In law schools, there is often the expectation that the best students will go to big firms, but those can be terrible places to work-- for one example of this, read Michelle Obama's memoir, "Becoming." Many of my best students would be much better off working in a smaller setting, or as a defense attorney or prosecutor.
Here is part of what my dad had to say about this:
Psychologists often distinguish between intrinsic motivation (wanting to do something for its own sake) and extrinsic motivation (for example, doing something in order to snag a goody). The first is the best predictor of high-quality achievement, and it can actually be undermined by the second. Moreover, when you promise people a reward, they often perform more poorly as a result.
Scores of studies and personal case histories point to the benefits of an attitude of extreme giving at work. The greatest source of motivation is a sense of service to others; focusing on the contribution of our work to other people’s lives has the potential to make us more productive than thinking about helping ourselves.
