Chris sent me an interesting article today from
Lifehacker asking its readers, "
Does compensation kill your motivation?" This question applies to all professions and industries, but it's a pretty interesting read for anyone.
People in the A&E industries are driven by their motivation to create and entertain. We are one of the few very lucky industries where people pursue their hobbies as professions without the underlying pretense of money or compensation (i.e., you're not painting that picture because you expect someone to buy it). We do what we want because we
want to, because we're driven by our love for the arts, and because we want to share our creative talents with the world, or have a genuine interest in entertaining others (sort of like how doctors have a genuine interest in saving lives). We spout creativity in school, have big dreams, and want to show our ideas to everyone.
But when you finally reach that goal of having your hobby become your profession, not everything is always peachy keen. Suddenly, what you enjoy doing becomes work (a chore), and although you still enjoy doing it (or
think you do), the motivation to pursue other creative avenues outside work become less and less defined; instead, you just want to relax after a long hard day's worth of work, instead of doing more "work." Suddenly, job satisfaction does not equate to happiness, and at the end of the day, you start feeling empty and wonder "what went wrong?"
"[People] thought of it as something they really enjoy and like to do, but now they do it in order to get money, and they think of the task as an instrument to get money and not an activity that has value in its own right," Deci said. "Human beings both want to -- and, in a deeper way, need to -- feel a sense of being autonomous. When someone else begins to seduce you into behaving with an offer of a reward, it takes away your sense of being autonomous. Now you are doing it for someone else."
OK, so the above was a somewhat morbid scenario. It doesn't happen to everyone! Personally, I think it depends on what you do. I've seen plenty of people in my industry pursue their hobbies actively outside of work, even though they work with those hobbies for a living. I've seen others fizzle out and spend their free time contently not doing anything related to work, or frustratingly searching for that lost drive and creativity that led them to accomplish their goal in the first place.
Another example, does an artist do commissions because he wants to, or because he is
motivated by money? At what point does the fun end, and the need for compensation begin?
I make video games at work, but I certainly don't make games outside of work (I play them with urgent fanaticism, rather). I do enjoy 3D modeling, but by the time I get home, I don't feel like investing my free time in any sort of 3D modeling project, even though I don't specifically do it at work. All I do at work involves scripting and coding, and yet, I enjoy scripting macros for
certain games in my spare time. How does this fit into the above "motivation vs. compensation" equation?
So what do YOU think? Do you sometimes feel the same way? What's your motivation outside of work, and are you doing what you do
because you enjoy it, or do you find yourself slowly doing it more because of money?
Discuss!Original Washington Post article
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