The False Model of Motivation

2min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

"We are absolutely terrible to ourselves when things actually do go wrong," she says. "I think it's particularly likely that's the language that was used with us as we were growing up" She wonders if part of what's going on is this kind of false model of motivation where people might think being nasty will help them make fewer mistakes.

Read the full transcript here.

To increase our chances of success (in whatever domain and using definition of success), should we focus on boosting our strengths or shoring up our weaknesses? Are we harsher in our critiques of ourselves than in our critiques of others? What should an ideal inner monologue be like? What are some useful taxonomies of pain? Are there times when irrational, magical, emotionally-driven, and/or delusional types of thinking are useful?

Anna Paley is insatiably curious about how best to live our lives. She is a behavioral scientist and marketing professor at Tilburg University in the Netherlands. She received her PhD from New York University, Stern School of Business in 2017. You can reach her at a.paley@tilburguniversity.edu.

Staff