In this episode we discuss one of the most interesting results ever found in the psychological research of education, why pleasure maximization is a flawed model for human understanding, we go deep into a number of research examples, discuss the massive (and counterintuitive) difference between motivating top performers and bottom performers, and much more with Dr. Dan Ariely!

Dan Ariely is the James B. Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at  Duke University and is the founder of The Center for Advanced Hindsight and also the co-founder of BEworks. Dan's talks on TED have been watched over 7.8 million times. He is the author of Predictably Irrational and The Upside of Irrationality, both of which became New York Times best sellers, and he has a newly released book Payoff: The Hidden Logic That Shapes Our Motivations. 

• How being badly burned and spending 3 years in the hospital radically changed Dr. Dan Ariely's life

• How good intentions can go terribly wrong in changing behavior

• The two flawed models of motivation and why neither works

• I get interviewed by Dr Dan Ariely - he turns the mic on me and starts grilling me!

• The difference between momentary joy and lasting purpose

• Why motivation is not about YOU

• The critical importance of creating, meaning, improvement, and having an impact

• How money can demotivate and skew your motivation

• We get into the weeds on some fascinating experiments Dr. Dan Ariely has conducted about how money (doesn’t) motivate us

• Why bonuses don’t actually work

• The massive (and counter-intuitive) difference between motivating top performers and bottom performers

• Why it’s much better to analyze the BARRIERS to good performance and remove them

• One of the most interesting results ever found in the psychological research of education

• Why pleasure maximization is a flawed model for human understanding

• We dig into the the science of motivation itself

• The difference between social norms and market norms (and why it’s important)

• Why you would rather move a couch for free, than get paid $5 to do it

• Ideas for how we can use psychology to change America’s education system

• Why suicide rate among physicians are climbing rapidly

• The Crazy Day Care Story (and why its important)

• How effort and complexity create affinity for things you work on

• Why Dr. Dan Ariely and I both love legos!

• We go through half a dozen hilarious and very counter-intuitive findings from Dr. Dan Ariely's research

• We discuss the quest for symbolic immortality (and why it matters to you)

If you want to deeply understand how motivation really works - listen to this episode!

Thank you so much for listening!

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SHOW NOTES, LINKS, & RESEARCH

• [Personal Site] danariely.com

• [Book] Payoff by Dan Ariely

• [TEDtalk Profile] Dan Ariely

• [TEDtalk] Are we in control of our own decisions? by Dan Ariely

• [Twitter] Dan Ariely

Episode Transcript