A myriad of thoughts on: "Drive" by Daniel H. Pink

Heuristic: "A heuristic is a mental shortcut that allows an individual to make a decision, pass judgment, or solve a problem quickly and with minimal mental effort."

(Psychologytoday.com)

Heuristic: "involving or serving as an aid to learning, discovery, or problem-solving by experimental and especially trial-and-error methods; of or relating to exploratory problem-solving techniques that utilize self-educating techniques (such as the evaluation of feedback) to improve performance

In the book "Drive" Daniel Pink provides us with an evaluation of societal motivations and delves into what pushes us forward in work, discovery, play, and all sorts of other areas. He particularly divides the motivations we experience into 3 categories beginning with what he calls biological motivations. Biological motivations are considered motivations 1.0, and societal reward and punishment are considered motivation 2.0. But it's what he calls the Heuristic or creative work motivation that I am particularly interested in here in this post. Motivation 3.0 is derived from personal satisfaction with our work and play and everything else. And doesn't have as its drive the biological nature of survival nor the societal nature of innovation that will receive culture approval or punishment. Heuristic motivation is from intellectual fulfillment. He quotes Harry Harlow's research who titled this kind of motivation "intrinsic motivation."

Now as I was reading this I found that there were many presuppositions with which I would disagree. I'll address two major ones here:

First, is that the 1.0 motivation is biological as a result of Darwinian evolution. God, in fact, created us with the nature to work and to provide (Gen 1:28). Beyond that, I would disagree somewhat with the presupposition behind motivation 2.0. Society is a motivational factor for sure, but God created us to exist as a society enhancing one another and innovating. This is pointed out by Isaiah, for instance, as he describes the future glory of Zion (Isaiah 54:16-17) which would include innovators and craftsmen. This is what would be called motivation 2.0 in the book. (There is a good article on Crossway.com concerning innovation find it HERE). Motivation

Pink describes motivation 3.0 as being a necessary conclusion to our current societal status. In a society where the individual is defined separate than the family or community from which it derives and where individual happiness stands as the pinnacle of achievement, there arises a type of motivation that makes the reward punishment motivation irrelevant. He illustrates this well by a Mark Twain quote from "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" in which Twain says "Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do and that Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do... There are wealthy gentlemen in England who drive four-horse passenger-coaches twenty or thirty miles on a daily line, in the summer, because the privilege costs them considerable money; but if they were offered wages for the service that would turn it into work, then they would resign." Where work has been a system of reward punishment in a capitalist society that generates a great deal of motivation, in a Heuristic society that has so much wealth and resources we don't make rational decisions. This is also illustrated by Pink when he points out that in 2002 Nobel Prize for economics was awarded to Daniel Kahneman who pointed out that we do not make wealth maximizing choices every time we act as economic agents. Most of our economic choices are irrational. Heuristically is how we now do what we do. Self directed, self fulfilled, and self motivated. This is the world in which we now live. Notice a key word?

In the study of personality, neuroticism is the measurement of negative emotion. It is usually brought on (or at least enhanced) by thinking about ones self. It is often said that to think about one self is exactly the same as being miserable (video of that discussion) which is the same as scoring high in the category of neuroticism. If thinking about self is the same as being miserable (or depression) and the world is directed, motivated, and pursuing self - no wonder there are 14 Million + who are dealing with mental health issues, and some 13% (32+ Million people) of American's are taking medication particularly for depression (that is those who have sought help and can be counted). This is for another discussion another time though -- my purposes in writing what you are reading is to ask the question how has this infiltrated the church?

Desiring God came out in 1986 and had as its thesis the idea that pursuing God could be a hedonistic thing to do as it would produce happiness (really joy) that couldn't be found anywhere else. Therefore it was good to pursue God for your own sake. This was based loosely on the works of C.S. Lewis (Surprised by Joy) and Jonathan Edwards who wrote a lot about the affections of the Christian. This idea has been debated and worked through and there is no doubt that a right relationship with God is indeed Joy producing and peace giving. That said, have we taken the idea of pursing God to selfish place? Salvation is about our right standing before the Lord, yes, but does that mean that the church has adopted a cultural shift of removing motivations 1.0 (provision and survival) and 2.0 (reward/punishment)? Has the church adopted a motivations 3.0 mentality that preaches a gospel of self fulfillment?

Pink will go on in the book to reveal a set of behaviors necessary to make a transition to 3.0 motivations. He refers to these as Type X behaviors and Type I. Type X behaviors are influenced by extrinsic desires (aka operating from the outside of you) instead of intrinsic. Thus Type X behaviors are more concerned with external reward than internal satisfaction. Type I behavior which is suggested in the book, leads to a more inherent satisfaction with the activity itself. Pink claims that Type I promotes greater physical and mental well being and will always outperform Type X's in the long run. He argues for this with several examples and ultimately concludes that the greater the autonomy we have over our work the more productive we are it. So how do these motivations play out in the lives of believers?

Is it better for Christians to pursue a reward/punishment motivation (we have this in the Hell and Heaven doctrines) or even further a more primitive protect and provide standard (we have this in the idea of working hard, living proverbially, and responding to those who come against us in love). Or should we adopt a motivation that is self directed? Is it acceptable to pursue God for ones own satisfaction? Is a Type I behavior what the Bible instructs?

In several places Scripture we are told to enjoy life "...eat drink and find satisfaction in all that you do for this is the gift of God (Ecc 3:13, 5:18)"

We are also instructed to see external progress as motivation for our efforts listen all the motivations Paul writes about in Philippians 1:

Philippians 1:12, 14-18,

12I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel,... 14And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.

15Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. 16 The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. 17 The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. 18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.Yes, and I will rejoice, 19 for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, 20 as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Whole Bible Approach:

Taking a whole Bible approach to this issue - We can see in creation that God created us with a survival motivation once kicked out of the garden in order to work, reproduce and protect. But then starting with the deliverance of Israel into the wilderness we see God motivate His people with reward and punishment through the giving of the law and in what is often referred to as the deuteronomic principle -- obey God and be blessed - disobey God and be cursed. This plays out over the course of Israel's history until the life of Christ where we see Jesus provide a version of 3.0 motivation or self directed motivation. The difference between what Pink describes and what Jesus describes is that Jesus talks about how useful it is to abandon your self for a greater existence "...what good is it to gain the world and forfeit your soul? (Mark 8:36)" and Pink seems to articulate a belief that you're gaining the whole world by attending to your own soul.

There is also a point to be made about fundamentalism and progressive Christianity here - both of which are obscurities of the truth. In Christianity there are essential doctrines and non-essential doctrines and fundamentalism says everything an essential doctrine, and progressive christianity says that nothing is an essential doctrine. So where fundamentalism makes up rules for the Christian life applying reward/punishment motivation, progressive Christianity wants each person to be self fulfilled applying the heuristic motivation of being a Christian for your own sake. A truthful evaluation (of which I am not attempting here) would be that we are motivated by Christ and His work to come to God for God's sake because HE is worthy. That motivation cannot be without our own emotions and therefore must also include enjoyment on some level of working to God's glory. So is this motivation 3.0 or something else entirely?

Figuring out what motivates us individually is no small task, and to look at this from a socialogical view, considering a mass amount of people at once, is even more difficult. That being the case I am prepared to make at least 3 statements in conclusion:

1 - All actions are goal oriented.

We have something we want, something we are getting, or something that we desire at the heart of every action. Therefore, every action we take is ultimately the one we think is best for that moment or will ultimately bring us the best outcome. Even the most subconscience action that is done from habit is done with a mind-body cooperation that this will be "good" for me or at minimum "work" for me (whatever that may mean for you as an individual. So if our goal is only ourself - we will fall as a society and be self absorbed and weaker. we will increase in depression and suicidality. It is essential to live for something outside of ourselves in order to be healthy. If we are to adopt a heuristic motivation it cane only be what Piper describes and we can only take it so far. Our joy (which seems to be easily replaced by "Purpose") is only a sufficient motivation to keep us directed at God properly because it is secretly about Him. Piper's idea that our need to live for something beyond ourselves is foud in that our joy is actually found in God. So by Embracing Christ we become right with God and can experience true joy (purpose) which will carry us through the worst and most difficult experiences. This is consistent with a Biblical understaning.

2 - As my Friend Rick famously says: "Only until the pain outweighs the pleasure will you begin to change." The things we do to love ourselves, entertain oursleves, and promote ourselves do not move us forward. For an addict, for instance, the motivation 2.0 of reward and punishment, and 1.0 of pure survival is relevant. Because it is at this level that an addict can find hope to change. We need more than our own enjoyment to move us forward, individually and as a society. Frederick Nietzsche pointed this out a long time ago when he declared "God is dead." Not that God had physcially died, but that societies looking to God for meaning and purpose was gone and he subsequently predicted the fall of culture as a result. The entire book of Judges in the Bible seems to show a society that is motivated by 3.0 motivation as it says "In those days there was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in their own eyes" (Judges 17:6, 18:1, 21:25). It is not pretty nor did it function well.

3 - Not only does Self-motivation not work and seems to lead to a more depressive state individually and societally, but it also is unfulfilling. When I want to buy my wife a gift I do not do it with the 3.0 motivation of being a good gift giver, but rather of seeing her light up when I have loved her well. When I serve any one for any reason it is not so I am a good servant seeking to feel good about myself. Loving God and others is a higher motivation. and a more fulfilling motivation than sefl love. Christ calls us to an others-oriented worldview. Not that we are people pleasers gettting our value from people being happy with us, but rather interacting with others and their feedback is an essential part of our healthy motivation. So self promotion or self mastery or becoming better for the sake of being better is not enough to get most of us out of bed. Where as living for something greater and making a difference in someone elses life is motivation.

4 - Just because it is observed in society doesn't mean that it is right or good for society. A look at the Big Five personality types and a tertiary understanding of them tells us that people are motivated on an individual level by a variety of things including how neurotic they are, how enthusiastic they are, how open they are, how conscientious they are, and how agreeable they are. Seeing these personality traits played out shows us from where individual motivation comes. If I am conscientious, for instance, then I am motivated by disgust. If I am high in openness, I am motivated by creative outlets. So when we look at the whole of society through a lens of intrinsic motivation - the closest I can come to agreeing with it is these 5 constituent parts. So at best, society is divided into 5 different intrinsic motivations, and the Christian is supposed to be motivated by one main one -- their relationship with God through Christ.