Drive

I'm reading Drive by Daniel Pink, about what motivates people to do what they do, whether work or games or anything else in life.  The basic premise is that the kind of motivation that has worked reasonably well for most of civilization's history through the Industrial Age, namely the promise of extrinsic rewards for doing work such as salaries, benefits, promotions and so on may be less effective in motivating today's employees.  Smart organizations are recognizing that people are also motivated by intrinsic drives, which includes not only rewards of profit but also our needs for autonomy, mastery, and purpose.  Building on the work of Meyer Friedman the San Francisco cardiologist who developed the Type A/B language to describe personality types who were more or less prone to heart disease in his practice, Pink has defined Type X and Type I to describe the motivations of people in their jobs and other pursuits.  There is a self-assessment tool online here, where you can find out what type you are.  I was not too surprised to find out I am a Type I, motivated more by intrinsic drives than extrinsic rewards.  Perhaps that is why I am not rich.

Here is something that motivates me.