Demotivated by Design
The world is full of schemes aiming to incentivize us; we’re spurred on to achieve new targets and scale new heights by the carrot of lucre-based incentivization schemes designed to appeal to our selfish natures. Which is not surprising because we live in a society characterised by a belief that we’re all out for what we can get, wheeling and dealing in our own self-interest, forever trying to get the maximum reward for the minimum effort.
Which is like determining that 5 is the square root of 17. Anyone who truly believes that money is the main motivation for most of our behavior is someone whose belief system needs to be carefully inspected with one of those devices used for stirring septic tanks. Worse still, financial incentive schemes may actually miss the point by undermining our most cherishable quality: curiosity makes the man, even if it flattens the feline.
