Daniel Pink explains why people are motivated to do demanding cognitive work - such as software programming - for free. The science indicates that it has to do with our deep need for purpose, mastery, and autonomy that overshadows money as an incentive in certain situations.
The video makes a powerful argument that a society set up for contribution to the common good may suit us better than one that assumes we are rational self-maximizers. The video is based on Pink's new book, Drive.
Teaser image by kk+.
Comments
Robert Seetzen wrote on 05.19.10, 12:36am:
Wow! Great concept, great animation, fantastic! Found this on http://twitter.com/glynmoody - Thanks!
Abby Quillen wrote on 05.19.10, 7:58am:
I love this video, and it's a great companion piece to a discussion about Alfie Kohn (who wrote a book on this very subject called Punished by Rewards).
Pink and Kohn both evaluate scientific research to call into question our basic assumptions about what makes humans tick. And they come to similar conclusions: when tasks aren't menial, we perform better when motivated by our own innate drives and self-determination, not external factors, like rewards or competition.
I'm looking forward to reading Pink's book.
Anonymous wrote on 05.22.10, 4:11pm:
Is there any organisation that is setting up and running live versions of all open source software as a charity/not for profit? or a company with a CSR budget to do so? Would it be possible to help you to make a re skinned version of any existing software (using existing open source) so we can help the public to solve other social issues (Ideally using that http://www.TRAIDmark.org/ business structure)? Maybe working with someone like http://www.ONEworldHEALTH.org/ or http://www.earth.org/ which is closing so maybe ... See Morethis is something I could help you take on so
everyone can share local knowledge? Also can http://www.WEBiversity.org/ share video's and create http://www.TRUSTlibrary.org/ with your
team? Ed http://www.WHYMANdesign.com/
Kim Gaskins wrote on 05.24.10, 10:06am:
Neal,
Also worth checking out Yochai Benkler's paper, "Coase’s Penguin, or, Linux and The Nature of the Firm." - http://bit.ly/9CK8TE
Russell English wrote on 05.26.10, 8:12am:
Fantastic! Great video and a brilliant piece of psychology
This is a popular topic here at Shareable! http://shareable.net/blog/government-20-and-motivation-0
Jeremy Adam Smith
Editor, Shareable.net