Self-motivation

Why Reading Drive Was Interesting, But I Regret Buying It

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).

Preparing for the Brussels 20k race

Approximately six weeks ago I started running – as in it was the first time ever I had a long distance run training. The first time I surprised myself running 5k and it was motivating enough to go for more.

I also killed a personal myth: running alone is boring. Most of my runs are alone and it’s actully really comfortable. I always seem to find a jazz rhythm that would suit the rhythm of breething. Continue reading →

Leadership in sport, to be applied in business

Here’s a great article published in 2009 by Jeff Pearlman. You can read the full text on Psychology Today. There are so many leadership examples in the text that I can hardly make a shortlist of them. Instead, I took an excerpt of what I believe to be one of the best advice a company can give its leadership. And a question: do you have leaders with these traits in your organization?

Along with talent, there are several attributes that all winning teams (and winning players) possess, according to Kimball and other sports psychologists.

Work Ethic: “If you have a player who is constantly working to improve, it’s the number one sign of a winner who’ll make winning contagious,” Kimball says. “The focus isn’t 100 percent on outcome, but on getting better and making the people around you better. If players see their star working his tail off, they’ll feel compelled to do the same.” Continue reading →