#50: Why Would Anyone recap

A roundup of favourites

FIFTY POSTS! Woohoo. To celebrate this milestone, I’ve compiled some Why Would Anyone highlights below—exploring intrinsic motivation everywhere: from creativity to parenting, from rock climbing in Yosemite to school in Malawi.

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Happy weekend,

Tania

Photo by Kendall Scott on Unsplash

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A subjective selection of posts

#2: Why Would Anyone climb 3,000 feet without a rope?

Alex Honnold, rock climber:

“I wonder if people that hate on risk-taking are as intentional in their choices as I am. How many people are choosing to live in a way that best suits their values and best fulfils them?”

#3: What twins studies tell us about self-motivation

Margherita Malanchini, psychology researcher, Queen Mary University of London:

“For some children it’s easier to be motivated than for others, and it’s not because they are lazy or unwilling.”

#12: Why Would Anyone stick with something they stink at?

Karen Rinaldi, author of (It’s Great to) Suck at Something:

“The beauty of finding something you can suck at is the freedom from having set goals that can cause anxiety.”

#18: How to make hard decisions

The alternative is drifting. Which I think is what makes you look back at years of your life one day with fury in your belly, wondering how the hell you got there.

#32: Why Would Anyone mix family and work?

Jochen Menges, management professor at the University of Zurich:

“Work has such a dominant role in people's lives; maybe it's time for family to come into work.”

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More research that got me thinking

#6: Can everyone afford intrinsic motivation? (Part 1)

Marieke van Egmond (formerly University of Hagen, Germany):

In [rural Malawi and Mozambique], girls who had the strongest feeling of connection to their community, of aptitude, of agency over their choices, were the most motivated to attend school—again, regardless of their poverty level. […]

“I think the power of satisfying those needs is sometimes neglected in policy-making, where it’s mostly about providing extrinsic incentives”, like cash rewards for certain behaviours.

#9: Can everyone afford intrinsic motivation? (Part 2)

Frank Martela, Aalto University, Finland:

Meaningfulness often comes from small things, like interactions with a few people at work, says Martela. “You don’t have to be Nelson Mandela to experience meaningful work.”

#39: Why Would Anyone study intrinsic motivation in the brain?

Stefano Di Domenico, University of Toronto Scarborough, Canada (#39):

“We explore through philosophy and science and [...] art. And often, these activities are pursued and enjoyed through intrinsic motivation.”

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Quotes I won’t forget

(from my Three Things posts)

Gretchen Rubin (#31):

We can build our habits only on the foundation of our own nature.

Bill Burnett and Dave Evans (#35):

Since there’s no one destination in life, you can’t put your goal into your GPS and get the turn-by-turn directions for how to get there. What you can do is pay attention to the clues in front of you, and make your best way forward with the tools you have at hand. We think the first clues are engagement and energy.

Kurt Vonnegut (#38):

Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what’s inside you, to make your soul grow.

Tove Jansson (#40):

Only passion and joy can be honest. Nothing I’ve been forced to do has ever brought me joy. Not to me, not to those around me.

Pénélope Bagieu (#43):

So even if someone says in the end: “It’s not so great, what you’ve done,” I say: “Yes, but I spent four amazing hours drawing it.”

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This song (#5)

and the rest of the Why Would Anyone playlist.

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