Comments on: “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us” by Daniel H. Pink

By: Carol Wong

Carol Wong — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 22:45:28 +0000

I had a year of Motivation and Drive in college. It turned out to be very boring. The lab was the only part that was interesting. The rest of it involved memorizing equations that only included a few important variables.

I learned how to get a mouse to put a tiny basketball through a hoop with intermittent variable reward schedules, that rats love sugar water and they will spin the wheel as long as they get it, and that mice are very cuddly.

When I used to work, I really liked the bonuses and worked very hard to get them. When I did the work, I never thought of them, all I wanted to do was the best job that I could do. I think that rewards based on completion dates defeat the purpose. I always fought for a nice chunk of time to get projects done and beat all of them.

There are a tremendous amount of variables with experiments that may not be taken into account therefore, I would take the experimenter’s conclusions with a grain of salt.

Carol Wong

By: FHC

FHC — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 00:49:48 +0000

i’m quite taken with this information. “As jobs have become less repetitive and more creative, Pink argues that employees have begun to gain intrinsic satisfaction from doing their jobs well”. this revelation would allow for the personal input of each employee to be valued and the employer seeing the benefits in productivity. totally win/win. what a great resource i’ll be happy to seek out.
thank you for your forthright review. not all perfection in the writing but enough solid writing to make it worth the reading…
FHC recently posted..weekly worship 10/9

By: stacybuckeye

stacybuckeye — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 14:43:40 +0000

I’m not sure about the author’s findings either, but I think my husband would lovethis.
stacybuckeye recently posted..Fave Film 24 – A Few Good Men

By: Kelly H

Kelly H — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 09:10:37 +0000

Sounds like an education and though provoking read, have always what does drive some of the most succesful people that I know and why others never seem to get ahead or make contibutions to their own communities etc. Although it sounds like it may be heavy on numbers and results in some areas of the book, the rest of the review definately made it sound like a book to be read slowly to truly comprehend and acquire the thought process that would make one more driven or give them the ability to motivate and drive others to better paths.

By: Colleen Turner

Colleen Turner — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:08:33 +0000

Very interesting review, thank you! I don’t know if I agree with the author’s findings are not. On the one hand, I agree that, when people do something more for enjoyment then for monetary gain, they tend to do a better job for numerous reasons (less stress to compete and meet requirements, more enjoyment in actual task, etc.) and when they are receiving compensation for it there is more pressure to succeed and hurry through a task just to get to the end results. However, I don’t think that bonuses, extra rewards and compensation, etc. necessarily brings down an employee’s job satisfaction. For me, if I am doing my job as I always have and I begin receiving extra things for it, I am happy. Now, if those extra things are tied to increased work load, faster completion dates, etc. then the stress might become higher and the rewards might not meet the new job expectations. Might be interesting to read through the studies he has conducted to get a better insight into what he means. Thanks!