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Money is a terrible motivator? lol. What's this nonsense? Give me your name and address, I'll write you a check for $1500 free and clear to take back what you just said.


Did I say that money provided no motivation at all? People perform better when they're doing what they love. At a very minimum, money is a terrible motivator when it's the only form of motivation a person has as the person I was responding to seemed to suggest.

And for the record, nobody paid me to write that comment in the first place.


That depends on how much money you have. If you are well taken care of then yeah money is a poor motivator. If you are in real need then money becomes quite the motivator(If only as a proxy for those other needs.) Most of the crime around the world is solely driven by the need to acquire wealth by means easier, quicker than legally possible. Crime seems to be doing quite well for itself even with the serious consequences for breaking the law.


Clearly you're more motivated to win an argument on the internet than to keep $1500. That would seem to belie your argument.


Watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrkrvAUbU9Y and then get back to me on how good a motivator money is.


When I saw your link, I was fully expecting this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc -- also quite entertaining and informative.


potential counter arguments can be found in daniel pink's interview at econtalk.org

http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2010/08/daniel_pink_on.html


And we could threaten someone's family to show the counterpoint to that point.

Money's a great motivator until you're near your threshold earnings, and then other things start slipping in, like, for instance, the ability to make a point. Then, of course, is the discussion about why anyone wants money...and the fact that there's more direct ways to affect the value in someone's life. Hate to sound the sociopath, but money doesn't stack up against a family.


>And we could threaten someone's family to show the counterpoint to that point.

That's why a hell of a lot of people are working - if they don't work, their family would get to go live in a box on the sidewalk. That's another way of saying that workers are motivated by money, for a sizable fraction of workers.


After reading your post, I'm tempted to tell my boss to compensate me instead with hugs, rainbows, high fives and other family-like perks. Since family should motivate me more than money can. </s>


So that no-one will seriously misread it as such, I'll explain that I meant threatening a family, rather than...family like perks.




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