Drive is about understanding human psychology and the forces of motivation in the 21st-century economy. Daniel Pink argues that most businesses have failed to upgrade their ineffective “carrot-and-stick” motivators. Instead, the work poised to take off in tomorrow’s economy—characterized by non-routine and creative activities—can only flourish when people are given autonomy to pursue mastery with a clear purpose of contributing to something larger than ourselves.
Traditional if-then rewards can work for rule-based routine tasks, but they’re ineffective and counter-productive for non-routine, creative knowledge work.Intrinsic motivation relies on autonomy, mastery, and purpose.High performance requires personal autonomy over task, time, team, and technique.Mastery is engaging in deliberate practice with a worthy pursuit.A clear purpose for a cause greater than yourself is a powerful source of renewable motivation.
Please Note The following book summary is a collection of my notes and highlights taken straight from the book. Most of them are direct quotes. Some are paraphrases. Very few are my own words. These notes are informal. I try to organize them by chapter. But I pick and choose ideas to include at my discretion. Enjoy!
Our current operating system has become far less compatible with how we organize what we do; how we think about what we do; and how we do what we do.The success of open source software demonstrates a new business model for the 21st century. It depends on intrinsic motivation.Algorithmic tasks can be followed with a set of established instructions. It’s repeatable. Like a cashier.Heuristic tasks require experimentation with possibilities until you devise a novel solution.Routine work can be outsourced or automated.Artistic, empathic, non-routine work generally cannot.External rewards and punishments—both carrots and sticks—can work nicely for algorithmic tasks. But they can be devastating for heuristic ones.