Book Summary: Payoff Dan Ariely Summary
Payoff Dan Ariely Summary
Payoff The Hidden Login That Shapes Our Motivations
Payoff Dan Ariely Summary
INTRODUCTION
From Tragedy to Meaning and Motivation
On the complexity of motivation, and a personal story
we are all part-time motivators. Given that motivation is so
central to our lives, what do we really know about it?
What do we truly understand about how it operates and about its role in our lives?
The assumption about motivation is that it is driven by a positive, external reward. Do this, get that.
But what if the story of motivation is in fact much more intricate, complex, and fascinating than we’ve assumed?
Payoff Dan Ariely Summary
The Motivation Equation
Motivation = Money + Achievement + Happiness + Purpose + A Sense of Progress + Retirement Security + Caring
About Others + Your Legacy + Status + Number of Young Kids at Home2 + Pride + E + P + X + [All kinds of other elements]
Payoff Dan Ariely Summary
CHAPTER 1
How to Destroy Motivation, or: Work as a Prison Movie
Why it’s astonishingly easy to demotivate someone
Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose. —Viktor E. Frankl
HOW TO MOTIVATE YOURSELF
From time to time, we find ourselves bored and unmotivated at work or at home. Like Sisyphus, we end up doing the
same humdrum, unrewarding thing over and over.
What can we do to change the situation when it is impossible to change the circumstances? The answer: change your mental framing.
Payoff Dan Ariely Summary
CHAPTER 2
The Joy of (Even Thinking That We Are) Making Something
On our deep attachment to our own ideas and creations
If we have the money, we hire people to clean our houses,
take care of our yards, or set up our wi-fi systems to avoid being bothered by these common annoyances.
But think about the long-term joy we miss out on when we don’t engage in such tasks.
Could it be that when we trade off annoyance for more efficient task completion that we end up
accomplishing more but at the cost of becoming more alienated from our work, the food we eat, our
gardens, our homes, and even our social lives?
The lesson here is that a little sweat equity pays us back in meaning—and that is a high return.
Payoff Dan Ariely Summary
CHAPTER 3
Money Is from Mars, Pizza Is from Venus, and Compliments Are from Jupiter
Why money matters far less than we think?
It seems self-evident that our family, social, and professional lives depend to a large degree on goodwill.
But while we usually recognize the importance of goodwill in our romantic and social relationships, we don’t seem to appreciate its role in the workplace to the same degree.
when we are motivated by social considerations, adding money to the mix can decrease the overall motivation and goodwill.
Payoff Dan Ariely Summary
CHAPTER 4
On Death, Relationships, and Meaning
The crazy urge for symbolic immortality, and how love conquers all
Observing funerals and the rituals around them makes it clear that we have a deep need for
“symbolic immortality.” At either a conscious or unconscious level, we want to outlast our physical life
and to be remembered through the things we leave behind us—our children or our achievements.
This is why wealthy individuals start charitable foundations and put their names on buildings; why starving
artists draw and write; why graffiti artists paint on underground walls; why children carve their names in rocks and trees;
why Michelangelo painted on the ceilings of chapels; why athletes work so hard to break records; and even why some people eat hundreds of hot dogs at a sitting, just to get their names in the Guinness World Records.
Our motivation to leave a legacy is powerful and interesting in its own right, but maybe more than any other type of motivation
it provides us a window into the complexity and multiplicity of the elements in our motivation equation—an equation that we are just starting to uncover, appreciate, and understand.
EPILOGUE
The Answer to the Ultimate Question
The mystery of motivation, in summary
Among all of the motivating forces in the world, it turns out that money isn’t the simple, great motivator most of us assume it to be.
In fact, sometimes it is a disincentive.
We’ve also learned that, at some point or another, we all become offenders against
(perhaps even killers of) human motivation when we ignore, criticize, disregard, or destroy the work of others.
We have also learned that we’re much more driven by all kinds of intangible, emotional forces:
The need to be recognized and to feel ownership; to feel a sense of accomplishment; to find the security of a
long-term commitment and a sense of shared purpose.
We want to feel as If our labor and lives matter
in some way, even after death.
To motivate ourselves and others successfully, we need to provide a sense of connection and meaning—remembering that meaning is not always synonymous with personal happiness.
Arguably, the most powerful motivator in the world is our connection to others.
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