Payoff: The Hidden Logic That Shapes Our Motivations(TED 2)

Every day we work hard to motivate ourselves. We spend much of our time trying to motivate the people working for us, with us and in business with us. In our personal lives we try to motivate our friends, partners and children.
  From the economic point of view, motivation is based on a very simple trade-off: we need and want things, and we work to get them. We’re more likely to do something if we get money for it, and the more money we get, the more motivated we are.
  But what if our understanding of motivation and money is all wrong? In Payoff, Dan Ariely investigates the true nature of motivation and our partial blindness to the way it works. He digs to the root of money motivation, and explains how understanding it can help us to successfully approach different choices in our lives. Along the way, Ariely explores complex questions like:

* Why are we willing to part with money on some occasions and not others?
* Should we motivate children to do chores by giving them money?
* Is there any correlation between performance efficiency and pay?
* What are the taboos surrounding money and should they be challenged?
 
We often, mistakenly, think that our motivations are simple and one dimensional. But motivations are about the essence of what pushes us forward, what make us human. Payoff explores the complex motivations that drive us, giving insight into what we really want in life and what we can do to get and give more of it more often.

About the Author :
Dan Ariely, James B. Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University, is a founding member of the Center for Advanced Hindsight. He is the author of Payoff and the New York Times bestsellers Predictably Irrational, The Upside of Irrationality, and The Honest Truth About Dishonesty.

Review :
‘A quirky exploration of the mysteries behind human motivation . . . Ariely writes in an approachable, chipper style . . . A mostly provocative account of how inner turmoil drives us.’
  ‘A surprisingly empathetic and practical volume, behavioral economist Dan Ariely’s slim, 100-page primer on motivation will be the book you wish your boss had read.’
  ‘[A] short and fascinating account of what motivates people at work and in every other aspect of their lives  . . . An insightful read for leaders who want to know how to get the best out of everyone around them.’ ' "Too many managers believe people are motivated by money", Ariely says ... "Gratitude and compliments are better motivators", Ariely says...This is all true, and characteristically engagingly written.'  'Dan Ariely makes the strong case that the best way to motivate people, including ourselves, is not through persuasive tactics, however subtle, but by providing the groundwork for meaning in people’s lives. We are all striving to become better people. To paraphrase Ben Franklin, we want to be healthier, wealthier and wiser'