This text wants to be a book review. Let’s see how it ends.

I started reading drive after all the hype around it, after being referenced in prof. Werbach’s Gamification course, and after passing my filter of “be careful when the 1 star ratings are more than 10% of the 5 star ratings” on Amazon.

Drive introduced new concepts like Deci’s Self-determination Theory and structured my scattered knowledge of when intrinsic motivators work in favor of extrinsic motivators, and when the opposite applies. It talks about autonomy, purpose and mastery as being the three pillars of intrinsic motivation, and comes with a toolkit & reading list.

Knowledge related, I enjoyed reading the book. Even more, I enjoyed following up on the scientific research referenced. Just today I searched some using Google Scholar.

So it’s not the content inside, but the wrapping that put me off. 75% from the beginning you reach Drive: The Recap – which is just that, a recap. Proposed wisely in three forms: Twitter Summary, Cocktail Party Summary and Chapter-by-Chapter Summary. So actual information is about 3/4 of our book.

The second thing that I disliked – and it’s the second time it happened –  highlighting limit. Information highlighted for reference has been lost forever behind the “you reached the limit of your highlights” message.

In short: Drive has lots of interesting concepts that otherwise would be found just in professional books or white-papers. Drive is also a marketing case-study for selling a book. Just that it has way to much redundant information. Way too much. Better buy Ryan & Deci’s white-papers and books (if they would be made available in ebook format).