I May Want the Carrot, I May Not Want the Stick, But What If I don't Want Either?

Sitting amongst a jury of my peers attentively listening to the case being made by the defendant, I quietly thought to myself what to believe and what to dismiss. The case being pushed was a hard one, one that clearly must have required much preparation and intellect in order to conjure. Now what scenario would one think that I am describing to them, if they couldn't already tell by the title? Now my answer, being a surprise to many, but only a mere recollection to most, is the case that was argued so thoroughly, by a man so insightful as Dan Pink. His TED talk, was one based upon the quote, "There is a mismatch between what science knows, and what business does". In this discussion, or as he put it, "case", there existed a thought-provoking arrangement of ideas based around the teaching that business as we know it today, is too reliant on "carrot and stick", or, reward and punishment (carrots being the rewards and sticks being the punishments) motivational techniques to make workers work well and stay on task. He argued that instead of this primitive, industrial-age way of thinking, companies and businesses should focus on another type of motivation that he calls intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is similar to another type of intrinsic motivation, the desire to survive, but has a different aspect about it; It is the desire to survive prosperously and meaningfully. For example, instead of merely going to work every day, it is the act of someone going to work every day while smiling, getting their work done efficiently and productively, and doing so all under the pledge that it is work with no extrinsic motivational pushes (carrots and sticks). Does this sound at all like a drugged-up, zombie-like way of working? I mean, people just don't do that on an average basis, they must be under the influence of some type of drug, right? Wrong; That is the beauty of Pink's way of telling his side of the story, he is able to make sense of all of his beliefs and put it into an easily recognizable format. While doing so, he is actually, although it may not seem like it at first, telling an entire army of motivation 2.0 (carrots and sticks) thinkers that they are wrong, and will never be right. That is, as long as they wish to progress in any shape or form. The idea is simple, people doing work that they know in their minds and souls will benefit others, under the notion that it has meaning and actually represents something in their lives, rather than the left-brained thinking jobs such as software programmers and designers that can easily be automated and outsourced. This new idealism of work, to look at it in a future sense, is too meaningful for boring soulless computers and far too complex for foreigners equipped with their own personal "carrot blinders", blocking their path to any creative solution. What this speech meant to me, and I'm sure to anyone else who may have had an encounter with this powerful new idea, is that there truly is a mismatch between what science knows and what business does, and this mismatch must be repaired before any type of social, economical, or contemporary progression can occur. It is up to the youth of the world, the future leaders of the world, to realize this fate and act upon it before it's too late. This would require many new ways of thinking, one of which being schools doing what many may call "lessening-up" on stresses put onto their youth; Because really, what more is stress than the result of the inefficiency of extrinsic motivation? The truth is, practicing meaningful, self-sustainable acts of intrinsic motivation will increase productivity and will decrease stress in anyone and everyone who is willing to take-on the challenge of discovering themselves, as well as creating a new meaning for life.