Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Drive - Book Quotes

I'm starting a new trend, that as I read books, I'm going to list out significant or relevant quotes that I'd like to remember.

Drive

by Daniel Pink:

Something cool about this book is that at the end, there is several levels of summary, from a 140 character twitter summary, an elevator and cocktail party summary, as well as a couple of paragraphs on each chapter.

External motivation ( rewards and punishments) == bad

  1. Extinguish intrinsic motivation
  2. Diminish Performance
  3. Crush Creativity
  4. Crowd out good behavior
  5. Encourages cheating, shortcuts, and unethical behavior
  6. Addictive
  7. Fosters short - term thinking

The Three Elements of intrinsic motivations

  • Autonomy

    • Autonomy over the task
    • Autonomy over their time
    • Autonomy over their technique
    • Autonomy over their team
"The most autonomy crushing mechanism imaginable: the billable hour. Most lawyers must track time, often in six minute increments. If they fail to bill enough hours, their jobs are in jeopardy. As a result their focus inevitably veers from output of their work (solving the clients problem) to its input (piling up as many hours as possible). "
The billable hour makes sense for routine tasks, but for non-routine tasks, the link between how much time somebody spends and what that somebody produces is irregular and unpredictable.
The antithesis of the billable hour is the ROWE (Results-only work environment) 

  • Mastery

    • Mastery is a Mindset
      • It is more like strength then height. You can work to improve it. It is in your control
    • Mastery is a Pain
      • "The mundanity of excellence".. spending the most time and effort on the little details that show the tiniest of improvements
    • Mastery is an Asymptote
      • Mastery is impossible to realize fully, because you can always get better. The joy is in the pursuit more than the realization. In the end, mastery attracts precisely because master eludes. 

  • Purpose

    • The yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves

Toolkits

Intrinsic Motivations for Parents:


  • Offer praise... the right way
    • Praise effort and strategy, not intelligence
    • Make praise specific
    • Praise in private: Praise is feedback, not an award ceremony.
    • Offer praise only when there is good reason
  • Help kids see the big picture