The underside of intrinsic motivation
Winkletter • 9 Aug 2024 •
I think too much, and in particular I think too much about my feelings. I realized this yesterday when I caught myself overthinking my dinner plans. I wanted to have an old fashioned trash meal of macaroni and cheese but I started to ask myself, “Do I feel like making mac and cheese?” In the next minute I realized, “Why are you asking yourself that? Just do it.”
This wasn’t about deciding if mac and cheese was a healthy choice. It was pure indulgence in laziness. Do I feel like boiling water and washing the pot later, sigh? Deciding what to do is easy up until the point I start to consult my feelings about the effort. I can expend a lot of mental energy making a decision to do nothing.
In a sense this is the downside of intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation has a downside, but so does intrinsic motivation. It’s easy to get self-indulgent when someone isn’t there pushing me through the boredom, anxiety, or a lack of passion.
Comments
Oh yes, that’s another aspect of it. I need a feeling to validate what I’m working on—so on one end I avoid work I don’t enjoy that I should be doing, and on the other end I stick to things that feel good but just don’t produce anything of value.
Spot on description!
Good point. In making products, they always say, “Only intrinsic motivation lasts”. But it has downsides too - intrinsic motivation can lead to over-identifying with a product, when better judgement or objectivity is needed.