(Old blog post, written: 2023-11-23)

This was an assignment for a general education course. After watching this TED talk, I found the topic fascinating, so I wrote some of my personal reflections.

Source: https://youtu.be/rrkrvAUbU9Y?si=44CFkKhIQvWVAjbq, NCKU General Education Psychology Slides

The Candle Problem

Experimenters gave participants some nails, matches, and asked them to attach a candle to the wall, but the wax couldn’t drip onto the wall. Many people couldn’t see the solution at first, trying to nail the candle to the wall or stick it with wax, but the solution was to use the nail box as a platform.

The problem setup is shown below:

The nails are placed inside the box.

The fastest, most direct, but not-so-intuitive solution:

Actually, just use the nail box to complete the task.

Extrinsic Motivation

Motivation driven by the external world that makes people do certain things, such as rewards, punishments, etc. The video mentions that extrinsic rewards worked for 20th-century jobs, but in the 21st century, this mechanical, reward-and-punishment approach is not only ineffective but also harmful. Glucksberg’s experiments proved this. This worked for several years and is one of the most robust research findings. There are some exceptions, like simple problems where participants are given clear actions plus rewards, which can indeed improve performance.

Later, he conducted another experiment using a simple version of the candle problem, showing that if-then rewards are very effective for this type of work with simple rules and clear goals. Because this makes people’s thinking more direct and narrower. But most problems in life are like the original candle problem, requiring creative, conceptual work. Right-brain tasks cannot use extrinsic rewards because they don’t have clear, simple rules and solutions.

Simple version of the candle problem

💡 If-then rewards often destroy creativity; they only work in a much narrower environment than we imagine.

Intrinsic Motivation

Motivation driven by one’s own interests, passion, and ideals, completely spontaneous.

The video also mentions that new business operation models should revolve around:

• Autonomy
• Mastery
• Purpose

Compared to extrinsic rewards, this approach can make employees perform better. The most famous example should be Google’s 20 Percent Time method, where they have 20% of their time for autonomous application, and almost half of the new products are generated during the 20% period.

Another example is Microsoft’s Encarta encyclopedia. They spent a large amount of money hiring professionals to complete this project, hoping to accomplish this feat within the scheduled time and budget. However, a few years later, another encyclopedia was born, created by people for interest, with no one receiving money, and that encyclopedia was called Wikipedia.

ROWE (Result Only Work Environment)

Created by two American consultants. Under this system, employees have no rigid schedule; they are only responsible for producing results. Sometimes they don’t even need to go to the office or meetings. It’s somewhat like the “responsibility system” we’re familiar with, but even more flexible. The implementation results were: almost all companies’ productivity increased, engagement increased, satisfaction increased, and turnover decreased. It enhanced autonomy, mastery, and purpose.

My Motivation Sharing

Motivation for Choosing NCKU Computer Science

Actually, I think my initial motivation was a combination of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. On one hand, I really hoped my future work could have flexible hours and high salary, and choosing computer science could also meet societal expectations; on the other hand, I was genuinely interested in computer-related knowledge, though I had less exposure to it in high school.

Learning Motivation Transformation

What’s worth sharing is my learning motivation. In my freshman year, because everyone was so talented, coming from top-choice high schools, and I was from a community high school with a weak high school foundation, I felt really frustrated. At the same time, cram schools kept saying: you need to be in the top few percent to get recommended to top graduate schools. This created huge pressure, and I felt disgusted when I saw books. All learning was for grades and credits. This training continued until my sophomore year with obvious results - my grades became really good. But at the same time, I saw many people sharing about work-life balance and felt I should return to who I was in high school, simply wanting to learn knowledge, learning out of curiosity about the field. We all know that satisfying curiosity is a very happy thing.

So my learning style gradually changed from grade-oriented to curiosity-driven. I used to prepare for exams just for test questions, and although I still do sometimes, I care more about whether I truly understand what I’m learning, rather than just getting good grades and walking away. I used to attend some information conferences probably because I wanted to add more color to my resume (though it wasn’t very useful, haha), but now it’s purely to satisfy curiosity and enjoy the feeling of learning new things. I also discovered that “studying” itself is a very happy thing; what I really don’t like are actually “exams” and “meeting others’ expectations.” Sometimes you just need to be your own hero, without blaming or getting angry because of others’ words or expectations. Even if you do have corresponding emotions, aren’t you the one making yourself angry?

Guitar and Music

I started playing guitar in junior high, but initially my dad thought my life was too boring and wanted me to have a hobby. It was indeed extrinsic motivation at first, but later this hobby accompanied me through many emotions. Plus, my family and I all love music, and it became my bridge to the world of music. It wasn’t until high school that I started to shine in clubs, and my motivation was mixed. On one hand, I wanted to show a good self to others, hiding my inferiority complex. Sometimes I would wonder: do I really enjoy the feeling on stage? What I play has no soul at all, just like exams, I just want to play it well but forget that imperfection is also part of perfection.

In university, because my classmates were also very talented people, plus I had to focus on coursework (so funny, others start having fun in college, I start studying in college), I put this interest/skill aside. I didn’t touch it for over a year, and my lack of confidence gradually made me forget the simplest motivation for enjoying something. But later, with the change in my mindset, I slowly found the self who dialogued with my inner world through music. I even started recording cover videos because I wanted to improve myself. None of this was for comparison, but purely wanting to do something well. I just felt I liked it, wanted to improve, and seeing myself improve felt great. None of this was required by courses, but I just felt it was meaningful and passionate - this is my intrinsic motivation.

After saying so much, I think we don’t need to reject extrinsic motivation too much. We can try to treat it as an opportunity. Maybe the time just hasn’t come yet, and intrinsic motivation might gradually emerge. Just like when I first learned guitar, the initial motivation wasn’t from intrinsic motivation either. The premise is that you must continue exploring. It’s the same in any field - the deeper and broader your understanding, the more interested you’ll become. If you feel uninterested, of course, it might be that you’re genuinely not interested, but it’s also very possible that your exploration isn’t deep enough.

This was just a general education course assignment that I accidentally wrote too much. I hope everyone can get some inspiration from it, and I welcome everyone to share their own motivations. Thank you all!