Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink

From Daniel H. Pink, the author of the groundbreaking bestseller A Whole New Mind, comes his next big idea book: a paradigm-changing examination of what truly motivates us and how to harness that knowledge to find greater satisfaction in our lives and our work.We've been conditioned to think that the best way to motivate ourselves and others is through external rewards like money—the carrot-and-the-stick approach. That's a mistake, Daniel H. Pink says in his transformative new book. The key to high performance and satisfaction is intrinsic, internal motivation: the desire to follow your own interests and understand the benefits in them for you. And Pink has discovered thirty years of scientific data that confirm these ideas and show an exciting way forward.As he did in his groundbreaking bestseller A Whole New Mind, Pink lays out the hard science for these surprising insights, describes how people and corporations can embrace such ideas (some of them are already doing it), offers details about how we can master them, and provides concrete examples on how intrinsic motivation works on the job, at home, and in ourselves.This is a book of big ideas that explains how each of us can find the surest pathway to high performance, creativity, and even health and well-being.

I was expecting more of a self-help book, but I found this to be another one of those pseudo-psychology books for the “smarter than you” set, like Malcolm Gladwell (which shouldn't have surprised me, since he has a quote on the cover). A lot of handy tips & pointers for some, I'm sure, but I'm just not into that.

I started reading it, but ended up paging through trying to find something interesting. I ended up...at the end.

I feel as if this book could've been shortened in a few paragraphs, but it was still an interesting read to see what will be the motivation for the next generation in the workforce.

What drives people to do great work? That's the basic question asked in this book and investigated through various examples at companies that have tried various approaches.

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
by Daniel Pink

What motivates us? Really?

In reading this book, I'm struck by how damn good at conforming I -am- was. As a kid, I quickly grasped the whole - it doesn't matter if it makes sense, just that you do what the teacher/parent/coach/etc wants when they ask. I was super good at school and giving the ‘right' answer even when it was ‘not-exactly-right'. I went on to try to get my kids to follow the whole do A to get B formula. All of this is exactly in line with the thinking BEFORE I was born, entrenched in the systems of adults to this day. Except, in some places. That thinking was that people are like “smaller, slower horses, responding to juicy carrots and painful sticks” (paraphrasing). Thinking this way leads teachers to ply students with good reader awards after x hours of reading, managers to give cash bonuses if you meet the target, and all kinds of other short-term simple minded rewards that change our why. When you are offered a reward, the why is no longer in your heart...it is the reward. There are countless examples in the book.

The stories in DRIVE show us that these reward structures make us less good versions of ourselves. Thankfully, Daniel finds research that shows our minds are moldable (like you may have read in The Shallows by Nicholas Carr). This is the single biggest takeaway from DRIVE, I think - that you can, personally, change your life such that you are working in line with intrinsic (BETTER) motivation like we are wired from birth. He uses the example of babies and toddlers and how they don't need rewards to be curious and busy - they get inner pleasure from actively engaging in their world. Only after we beat our growing and developing selves into automatons with gold stars, right answers, candy, trophies, certificates, etc... do we become slave to external rewards. I also learned that I misunderstood Type A - I am indeed not Type A, yay! but I do have trouble relaxing control of things that I have finished.

I have read several of the scientific studies cited in this book AND I must have a type because I have also read countless books that reference those same studies - mostly about psychology and behavior related in some fashion to economics. I don't mind getting the info again - honestly, that is how I think learning happens, in layers. That being said , there is a lot of material, but Daniel is pulling it all together in a frank and digestible fashion. Thankfully, at the end of the book, Daniel gives a summary of the book, a long list of recommendations for further reading (summarizing each book and giving the reason why it is applicable to his thesis), and a list of questions for further reading. There's also a set of activities for improving the reader's own intrinsic motivation.

I enjoyed this book - perhaps more so because I listened to it right after I finished When (same author). Since the books are both read by the author, the voice is familiar. I dunno about you, but sometimes the narrator gets between me and the content.

Recommended for adult readers - I think middle grades on up could read it, but there are so many references to work life ... and I just don't see kids with the same interest in what drives motivation...or the life history to have seen motivation gone wrong and ‘get' the examples.

Planned to listen? I played this on 2X on Libby and finished it in less than 3 hours.

I listened to this book running > 19 miles on a random Sunday morning for no reason at all, so I am feeling a little smug that I must have some kind of intrinsic motivation. I'm, like 80%. :)