Work

(On reading) Drive by Daniel Pink

NoelLeave a comment

Intrinsic Motivation: A Better Way To Motivate Yourself And Others

This book is about work and motivation. The author argues that rewards and punishments no longer cuts it as an operating system for organizations. He references studies made by psychologists in the last four decades.

For most of human history, the model of industries was based on rewards and punishment. The thinking goes: If you want more of something, you reward it. If you want less of something, you punish it. An external action (rewards or punishment) is triggered to get an expected output. This is a model of Extrinsic Motivation. In a factory, where the output of workers is immediate and tangible, this model is observable. It works. It correlates with performance.

However, as more research has been done, science has found that extrinsic motivation works only in limited circumstances. It does not work for non-routine tasks or tasks that require creative insight. For those tasks, rewards and punishments hinder performance. And as work transitions from factories to offices, where the output of tasks is no longer as immediate or as tangible, the model based out of extrinsic motivation is outdated.

The author mentions that this is a gap between what science knows and what business does. Some companies are still ran with this outdated model. The science suggests that an approach based on Intrinsic Motivation boosts both performance and engagement. And it stands on three elements: autonomy, mastery and purpose.

Autonomy is self-direction; the desire to direct our own lives. Mastery is progress; the urge to get better at something that matters to us. Purpose relates to meaning; the desire to contribute to something larger than ourselves.

The author expands on these three further in the book. He also provides toolkits on what organizations and individuals can do. For businesses, the author suggests to pay people fairly to get the compensation issue out of the way, and then build policies that foster intrinsic motivation. For individuals, this requires figuring out about what really matters to you and to get closer to those things.

Affiliate Links (it doesn’t cost extra, and anything you buy after clicking the link helps out the blog)

Drive: https://fullybooked.sjv.io/3P1Ayv
To Sell Is Human: https://fullybooked.sjv.io/LPkPmZ
When: https://fullybooked.sjv.io/9WoWzy
The Power Of Regret: https://fullybooked.sjv.io/6b9nPE

Like, Follow, and Get notified in advance through social media sites:
https://www.instagram.com/booknewb/
https://www.facebook.com/booknewb/
https://twitter.com/booknewb

(On reading) Think Again by Adam Grant

NoelLeave a comment

The Value of Doubt and Rethinking: How Questioning Your Assumptions Lead To Better Outcomes

If you can hold a thought and examine its validity, you have a good grasp of rethinking. A good sign of mental fitness is if you can rethink your assumptions and your opinions. Thoughts are easy and automatic. To challenge them is harder.

In this book, Adam Grant talks about how rethinking happens and why it matters. In three sections, he talks about how you can open your own mind, how you can encourage other people to rethink, and how you can engage groups and communities to rethink.

The first section is about how to think like a scientist, the intersection of confidence and humility, the Joy of Being Wrong, and a good kind of conflict: task conflict. One topic is about Imposter syndrome and arrogance, which at their bases are doubt and confidence. You need some level of what drives both. Doubt lets you see your weaknesses. Arrogance makes you ignore them. Confident Humility is when you acknowledge your weaknesses and aim to improve them.

The second section is about the most effective ways to debate, how to diminish prejudice through the absurdity of fan animosity, and a better way of helping people to change called Motivational Interviewing. Sometimes people ignore advice because they’re resisting the sense of pressure that someone else is controlling their decision. Motivational Interviewing allows people to find their own motivation to change.

The third section is about how you can navigate polarizing discussions, how you can nurture curiosity thru active learning in classrooms, and on how you can create learning cultures at work by fostering psychological safety and process accountability.

A fourth section is about how you can rethink your future: your career and life plans. Field test and try out your dreams.

Why read Think Again?

You learn how to generate solutions. You learn how to have an open mind, how to question your assumptions, and how to make better decisions.

How can you use this information?

Channel doubt into curiosity. Be deliberate. Slow down and rethink. Don’t let your ideas or your ideology become your identity. You can stick to your values but be flexible in your execution.

See more:

Like, Follow, and Get notified in advance through social media sites:

IG – https://www.instagram.com/booknewb/
FB – https://www.facebook.com/booknewb/
TW – https://twitter.com/booknewb

(On reading) Deep Work by Cal Newport

Noel1 Comment

There are no shortcuts, and success is never guaranteed; but if you want to be in the best position to succeed, you must put in the work. You must put in the hours where you are pushed to your capacity.

Cal Newport calls this “Deep Work”. These are activities where your cognitive capacity is pushed to the limit in a focused and concentrated state.

In this book, Cal Newport puts forward that this kind of work is becoming harder to come by, thus making it more valuable. The people who can cultivate this will have better leverage. They will be able to learn hard things faster. They will have better opportunities to make more great stuff.

He also argues that deep work is harder to come by because the culture assumes that being connected all the time has no downside. Businesses lay out open-office floor plans. Organizations reward the appearance of busyness. And it is in the interest of the Social Media giants for you to be distracted and on their platforms.

He also argues that deep work is meaningful because it lets you see that you are not defined by the circumstances that you find yourself in. It lets you see yourself as someone who can exercise their autonomy. It lets you realize the joy of doing a craft for its own sake. It helps ensue flow, the psychological state where you are so involved in an activity that you lose track of time.

In the second half of this book, he talks about how you can cultivate deep work. One is to develop habits and routines. Another is to schedule your focused time, and your distracted time (i.e. internet time). The third is to be mindful of the apps that you use, and to decide what is important and what is not. Last is to limit the amount of distractions and shallow work that you do.

Why read Deep Work?

While success is uncontrollable, the effort that you put in is under your control. If you don’t try, you don’t get a shot. If you’re gonna try, do it well. Work deeply for it. There is a satisfaction in knowing that you did the best that you can regardless of the outcome.

How can you use this information?

Guard your time. Use it wisely.

See more:

Socials:

IG – https://www.instagram.com/booknewb/
FB – https://www.facebook.com/booknewb/
TW – https://twitter.com/booknewb

On reading The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran

NoelLeave a comment

One of the most beloved classics, a spiritual poetry.  These are some of things describing The Prophet today. In contrast, it was not received as well at the time it was released.

The book reads like scripture. The structure is simple. There is no plot. The prophet is introduced as having been exiled in an island for 12 years and now he has to go back. Why? It’s not explained.

Before he goes, the people he’s lived with asks him to give them words of wisdom to ease their pain. The book becomes a series of poems about love, marriage, children, giving, joy and sorrow, houses, clothes, buying and selling, crime and punishment, laws, freedom, reason and passion, pain, self-knowledge, teaching, friendship, talking, time, good and evil, prayer, pleasure, beauty, religion, and death.

First time reading this, I had felt an almost spiritual affinity, like I had opened a well of wisdom. A couple years forward and having re-read the book, it felt quite different. Some of the ideas show influence of Romanticism, and yet how quickly we find out that isn’t always the case with the world. It doesn’t quite dig deeper on the subjects of justice, good and evil like the way the ancient philosophers do. It does however give beautiful takes on love, marriage, children, work and others.

On Marriage:

And stand together yet not too near together;
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow

On Children:

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and he bends you with His might, that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the Archer’s hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable

On Work:

Work is love made visible

On Joy and Sorrow:

The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter’s oven?

Why read The Prophet?

It is good poetry; also Gibran is listed as the third best-selling poet of all time after Shakespeare and Lao Tzu. I like to believe that there are things beyond reason; hence the spiritual part.

How can you use this information?

Reading anything that is well-crafted is always remarkable. And that’s possibly one reason why this has survived for a long time and has been read by masses of people; it’s a bonus that we can learn from metaphors and of life through them. On things beyond reason, it’s verging on philosophical whether you think the universe cares about you, or it’s entirely meaningless. I’d say part of a meaningful life is purely spiritual.

See more:

Socials:

IG – https://www.instagram.com/booknewb/
FB – https://www.facebook.com/booknewb/
TW – https://twitter.com/booknewb