Daniel Pink "Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us" S/R Catherine Holmes

Summary

In Daniel Pink's "Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us", Pink challenges society to rethink the concept of motivation by suggesting that it is not rewards that motivate people; but autonomy, mastery, and purpose, because extrinsic motivation (rewards) extinguishes those three things which inspire people to perform better. To start with, Pink argues that science defies the basic laws of behavioral physics. Such laws propose that if rewards are given for a behavior, that behavior will increase with better performance, and visa versa. This idea is true to an extent. A study at MIT concluded that for strictly mechanical tasks, extrinsic motivation does promote higher results. However, for any task which requires even the most basic cognitive thinking, rewards lowered performance tremendously. Students who were offered the highest prize achieved less than those offered nothing. This same experiment was conducted in a less prosperous country, with the same results. This means that motivation is not affected by situation or experience, but is driven by the same things for all of humanity. According to Pink, those things are autonomy (the desire to be self-directed), mastery (the urge to get better), and purpose (aspiration). Unfortunately, business today is not driven by autonomy, mastery, or purpose; but by management. While management does produce compliance, it hinders creativity and prevents engagement, which Pink expresses in a quote,

Pink advises that if society begins to apply the three fundamentals of motivation to business, not only will people be better off, but the world will be better off, because creativity and high performance will flourish.

Response

Daniel Pink’s “Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us” supports the tragic concept that education temporarily kills personal passion and creativity, because the current school structure transforms learning into a stressful, mandatory experience in which people are extrinsically motivated to achieve good grades because success is rendered impossible without them.

The use of animation for Pink’s video accentuated the deep meaning of his points and gave his audience a clearer understanding of his argument. Words written in different colors increased their importance, and the clever drawings captivated all who observed. With so many effective distractions, listeners were not able to zone out for even a second, and could not perceive any awkwardness in Pink’s presentation style, because he was not visible. Moreover, Pink’s stance on extrinsic motivation was easy to discern and is backed by both scientific and logical evidence. There are many others who share his same opinions. For example, the highly esteemed Sir Ken Robinson stated that, “We don’t grow into creativity, we get educated out of it” (Sir). Robinson believes that modern education is still rooted around industrial values in a world that desperately needs creativity. These industrial values are designed to prepare students for an industrial future, where math and science rule. The problem with this system is that children lose touch with their creativity because they are constantly told that originality is unimportant in the job world. Without creativity and other cognitive skills, learning is stripped of its fun qualities. As a result, youth are forced to turn to grades as the only motivator for the exhausting requirements of school. However, blogger “Liberty” reveals why this motivator is not as effective as passion, “While they may aim to keep their grades up, the intention is not to satisfy their love for learning but to get out of that school once and for all” (Liberty). This idea is also stated through the words of Neil Tyson:

The only reason that grades are effective is because they hold the keys; the keys to graduation, the keys to college, and the keys to financial success. In an industrial-run world, a person will repeatedly be told that they cannot sustain themselves without a stable job and money, thus the necessity to achieve sufficient grades. Consequently, because students are so focused on attaining the test scores they need to advance, they lose any desire to learn that they once had. Knowledge no longer is one’s own inventory to grow, but becomes a field of facts assessed by rigorous tests which do not allow for any individuality. Humans, who are so autonomically driven, give up their ability to self-direct something as simple as what they learn and who they want to be. This creates deep resentment for education in the hearts of children. Kids do not hate school because they hate to learn, but because school sucks enjoyment out of learning. Interestingly, this passion for learning often comes back when one is finished with school. That says something very unfavorable about the education system. Education is designed as a tool for learning. So why are the majority of people with passion for learning those who are not under its scrutiny? The only way to solve this problem is to reroute the approach to education:

The amount of homework must be condensed, and the grading system must lose some of its power. Work in general should not take priority over one’s family, relationships, or health. If grades do not correctly represent intelligence, it is unfitting that they should dictate one’s future and career. To bring back young people’s passion for learning, schools should incorporate more classes that enhance creativity, and ought to allow students to write their own schedule. Classes like mathematics and history are still important, but their weight must be reduced so as not to inhibit students from learning other things. Although the current education system suppresses young people’s passion for learning temporarily through unbalanced methods and unreasonable management, children's desire to grow in knowledge can be restored through a fresh approach to education.

Works Cited











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Liberty. "How To Kill Passion: The American Educational System." Libertarian Money. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.

"RSA Animate - Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us." YouTube. YouTube, 01 Apr. 2010. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.

"Sir Ken Robinson: Do Schools Kill Creativity?" YouTube. YouTube, 06 Jan. 2007. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.