The puzzle of motivation | Dan Pink | TED

TED · 12.8M views · 2009-08-25 · 18:37

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Overview

Dan Pink's TED talk argues that traditional carrot-and-stick rewards often fail for creative work, drawing on the candle problem and social science research. He points to autonomy, mastery and purpose as better motivators.

On Hacker News

HN cites it whenever money as an incentive comes up, as evidence that rewards can backfire for creative white-collar work.

Recommended by 3 HN people across 3 months · HN mentions 2010–2026

Topics

Psychology & human behavior Management, leadership & organizations Microeconomics & behavioral economics

What people said

Ey7NFZ3P0nzAe · 2026-01 · Strong recommendation
> The idea that money is not an effective incentive to drive behavior is wishful thinking It is obviously an incentive. But I think it's not an effective one and has many morally bad side effects. I highly recommend taking a look at the work of Daniel Pink related to money as an incentive. See The Puzzle Of Motivation (~20min) [VIDEO]
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arkitaip · 2014-06 · Recommendation
Have you seen any of Daniel Pink's work on what motivates people in business? It might inspire you to focus on other incentives than just pay salary increases. [VIDEO]
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hoop · 2010-10 · Recommendation
I'll read them all over the next couple of hours. (I am sick in bed anyhow :)) Readings that I recommend are "The Great Jackass Fallacy" (I got my copy <$10 on Amazon) and "Drive" by Daniel Pink. There's also a Youtube/TED video that sums up "Drive" very well. [VIDEO]
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Sources

Video by TED, played through YouTube.

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