Drive by Daniel H Pink

What motivates you?

I read this book called Drive which another poker blogger (cant remember who) suggested and its great!

It talks about how people are motivated to do the things that they do, and how there's a new type of motivation coming up, and how its the "new" way of thinking.

I don't wanna give all of it away but the gist of it basically says;

Motivation 1.0 - is basically caveman human instincts; we hunt because we need food, and the motivation is that if we don't hunt we will starve and die.

Motivation 2.0 - is industrial age capitalist money driven incentives. The "If, Then" system where if x is done, then x will be given. The most common business practice today. For example, your job is to sell more of the company's products, and the more you sell the more money you get. However, on the flipside lack of sales or breaking the rules equate to punishment.

Motivation 3.0 - is the new way of thinking where the process of doing the job well and aiming to master your field is the motivation for doing it. For example Google is well known for its compulsory 20% time, where employees have to work on their own projects 20% of the time that has nothing to do with their normal work. This keeps them interested in their job, and can create new things for the company, like google mail and google documents.

Split into 3 main categories;
Autonomy - Freedom and Individualism
Purpose - How what you do effects something/someone
Mastery - Aiming to be the best in your field

Another Motivation 3.0 strategy is to not have set times or such strict control over their employees to complete goals. Some companies let their employees come to work whenever they want, or even work from home. These companies have shown to improve on their profits and less employees have left.

However, it doesn't mean that we don't need 2.0 anymore, but 3.0 is more suited to jobs of creative thinking, and 2.0 more so on repetitive monotonous tasks that need to be done.

So swinging this whole random "book review" to Poker, I've been thinking about motivations 2.0 and 3.0 to when I'm playing. A 2.0 player will be incentivized by the money, and of course, we all are, that's the whole point. But like working in a company when things go wrong people get punished. Likewise a 2.0 thinker will think that when he's winning he's playing well, and when losing he's playing badly. Either way, the incentives are not healthy because they are too focused on the money.

A 3.0 thinker is not thinking about the money. His purpose is to try and master the game and be the best. Money is a factor, but the main incentive is to play well. This way, the process of learning and trying to master the game becomes the incentive, and playing becomes more enjoyable... win or lose. Its the challenge is the purpose.

This 3.0 thinking is really what the top players do, and what separates them from average Joe, moneymaking 2.0. Joe fluctuates between emotions based on the results, whilst Mr 3.0 is happy to try and be the master of his domain... learning, improving, and enjoying the challenge. Hopefully I can be a good 3.0 thinker when it comes to playing, and maybe even other stuff too for sure!

Anyways, its a cool book, I'd defo recommend it, though I'm really into the whole Freakonomics style books.