This video below is very interesting. The first few minutes is what I was interested in. (So if you are busy, watching only the first few minutes is fine.)
They did a few studies where they asked people to preform tasks and gave them financial rewards based on performance. (Like Wall Street does and swears by.) They found that for menial tasks, this type of motivation worked great. However, as soon as the task required an above average amount of cognitive ability, financial rewards actually have negative consequences!
Anyways, a very interesting video to watch, especially if you have been trapped into the unproven claim that money is the best motivator.
I saw this last night and found it pretty cool. It jives well with the experience many people have had in which something is very enjoyable right up until one starts getting paid to do it. Then it's a job.
ReplyDeleteBen,
ReplyDeleteThat's my experience too.
"However, as soon as the task required an above average amount of cognitive ability, financial rewards actually have negative consequences! "
ReplyDeleteSorry I can not watch the video, but the problem is that if money is not of a great importance in order to perform something relative to cognitive ability, to have intelligent persons who are having babies in order to have more intelligent persons is something important (so at the best time for a good reproduction), and it seems that (even if women do not like men to say it) to have a certain amount of money is important in order to have a good woman in order to have babies (they seem to prefer); so it could be better to consider the importance of both things and to arrange things with it. Finally be careful that this is not a theory from communists who are trying to subject the intelligent persons, because they love this idea, that if they are not the best, they can submit them, by giving them almost no power to make things change (in an intelligent way which is not obviously the best thing for some persons, but is for an intelligent humanity); sometime a side has to be chosen : the one of intelligent persons or the one of those who are not considered to be in this category; if some persons want to be able to be free of some injustices they need to have the courage to make things change.
Good video. Like Ben said, many people have experienced the phenomenon that "something is very enjoyable right up until one starts getting paid to do it. Then it's a job."
ReplyDeleteNote to Cartesian - watch the video dude. They say that $$ IS A FACTOR for these jobs requiring cognitive ability. You have to pay enough $$ that money becomes a non-factor, then you can inspire truly exceptional performance by promoting autonomy, mastery, and purpose.
Another note to Cartesian - your ramble about having a child is totally irrelevant, because for most people having a child is not a "job that requires cognitive ability" - having a child is something inspired by strong natural urges and/or spiritual reasons.