Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us

[barbosa2007]

This video just eloquently explained why I learnt to translate in my free time even though I had to juggle it with my job. It's so satisfying when people are able to use words and elaborate on a truth. It's a gift.

Comments

[helenmaldon.livejournal.com]

This is so funny, because I saw this video before and the FIRST thing I thought of was subbers and translators! Because it always amazes me that they do it for free, just to help other people out : )

[barbosa2007.livejournal.com]

Haha... Honestly speaking, sometimes I wondered if it was an ego trip for myself. But the part which they mentioned about making a contribution and mastery is relevant. I tend to compare the recent videos which I subbed with my videos from 2 years back to see if I have made any improvement.

[helenmaldon.livejournal.com]

LOL I'm cool with it even if it's an ego-trip, but I can definitely see the "mastery" motivation. For some reason contributing something of your own free will just feels so much more satisfying *^^*

[pucchu.livejournal.com]

I soooooo feel the same.
I'm a fansubber too (though from an Italian fansub) and sometimes I feel the urge to ask myself "Why am I doing all this? For whom?" and I strongly believe that the answer can't be "just for myself". The importance of giving something free to others for their pleasure is a great motivation for me; self-improvement is important too, but not as satisfactory as contribution is.
Just my two cents ;)

Oh and thank you for sharing, it was interesting! :D

[barbosa2007.livejournal.com]

Hi! *waves*

I'm glad this resonated with you. I see this as being applicable not only to fansubbing but also my hobbies in general. I do agree that some people feel good contributing to a cause in general, and bosses should pick up on that!

[nekobot01.livejournal.com]

Profit motive gets unmoored from the purpose motive...

That is - in a nutshell - what is wrong with the American economy right now and for the last 30 years. :P

Interesting video! And, yes, I'm one of those people who works diligently at time consuming hobbies during her off hours, too! I've been studying Japanese for 4 years and for about 3 years, I've done a LOT of writing for another blog for which I take no money or advertising.

I hadn't thought about it but I make just enough money at my job to not worry too much about money. ;)

[barbosa2007.livejournal.com]

Well in a capitalist economy, I guess that's how employers would interpret incentives. It's kind of frustrating because in my job, if a person performs well, that person gets loaded with more stuff that he/she may not necessarily like, and is rewarded with a performance bonus. It's like, "Hey, I'm taking away more of your free time, but here's some money to make up for it!"

The mindset is so prevalent that it's enough to make me scream.

It's nice to know that you're learning Japanese! Just wondering, so you watching the Kagiheya drama raws?

[nekobot01.livejournal.com]

Yes, I watch them raw but the technical words are confusing so I try to watch again with subtitles to catch it all. :)

It's been a fun journey learning a new language. It's amazing how much more I understand now than when I started! Very satisfying, like you said... :)

[barbosa2007.livejournal.com]

Yeah! I agree. Even for music, I tend to be a lyrics person so unfortunately I find it difficult to pay attention to songs I don't understand.

Isn't Kanji difficult? My second language is Mandarin, so picking up Japanese was easier. I tried Spanish a while ago and the verb conjugations just killed me.

[nekobot01.livejournal.com]

Oh my god! YES! The Kanji have been really difficult but I had a breakthrough a few months ago and I can sound out a good number in common use. I've been drilling like a mad woman because I want to take the N3 test at the end of the year.

We'll see how it goes...

I am not a lyrics person at all so I can listen to anything in any language - even nonsense languages! :D

I have a strong language background, though, and grounding in German, French, Norwegian, and Hindi. I'd love to learn Tamil and Korean but for now I'll stick with drilling Kanji. ;)

[barbosa2007.livejournal.com]

Tamil!?

Tamil is just mind boggling to me. The pronunciation and number of letters they have in their alphabet is just...

When did you have time to pick up German, French and Norwegian!? I'm not even gonna ask about the Hindi XD

[nekobot01.livejournal.com]

My parents were in the foreign service. :)

[barbosa2007.livejournal.com]

That makes a whole lot of sense now. I had a chance to talk to a senior official in my country's foreign service once and he was fluent in 3 - 4 languages and could make passing jokes in a few other tongues.

[nekobot01.livejournal.com]

It's a hard life but really rewarding!! I can't actually converse in anything other than English (and now crappy Japanese) but I know enough of the others to know if somebody is talking about me (important!!) and to do basic things.

And I can read a fair amount of French and German just from my music studies. :)

I love languages!

[mjlights.livejournal.com]

Thanks for sharing the vid. I can actually use this to educate some people stuck with the 'money factor as a reward' mentality. Now how to get the higher ups to actually sit down and watch this. Hmmmnn.....

[barbosa2007.livejournal.com]

Well, I do feel that monetary rewards are effective for some people. What irks me is that some bosses think that monetary rewards work for *all* employees. Hence, they implement performance bonuses that cause employees to "raise" the level of their productivity, but at the end it's not necessarily going to benefit the entire organization.

[kyraensui.livejournal.com]

Wow. I had to repost this on my FB for my friends to watch. ♥

If only my workplace understand this, then the employees' morale wouldn't be so down, but it's $$$. After watching this, I am going to motivate myself better in learning Japanese better.

♥ Thanks~~!

[barbosa2007.livejournal.com]

I posted this on my FB wall as well. ;)

I remembered telling my boss once that younger employees would probably feel more engaged if their opinions were being heard and evaluated by their peers and also superiors, but I guess it fell on deaf ears because my boss never understood the concept.

[hemisofia.livejournal.com]

Exactly why I fansub AND go to dance and music lessons every week XD

[barbosa2007.livejournal.com]

YES.

It's also time that bosses realize that more autonomy doesn't necessarily equal to lazy workers.

[hemisofia.livejournal.com]

actually my current company/boss has already subscribed to this. It's why I get to work from home whenever I don't feel like going to office XD But well, top performers still get higher bonus hahaha... Guess past behaviour still needs to be rewarded!

[barbosa2007.livejournal.com]

That's nice!

Unfortunately, in the civil service, management still thinks that throwing money at people will increase their job satisfaction and retention rates. I'm like, "Pfft!" at that.