Why We Work

But clearly, the lesson is that incentives can be a dangerous weapon. A critic of this research might say that the problem is not incentives, but dumb incentives. No doubt, some incentives are dumber than others. But no incentives can ever be smart enough to substitute for people who do the right thing because it’s the right thing.

Ninety percent of adults spend half their waking lives doing things they would rather not be doing at places they would rather not be.

If society asks more of us, and arranges its social institutions appropriately, it will get more.

to be satisfied with our work, we typically need a belief in the purpose of what we do. Amy

We “design” human nature, by designing the institutions within which people live. So we must ask ourselves just what kind of a human nature we want to help design.

Forty years ago, the distinguished anthropologist Clifford Geertz said that human beings are “unfinished animals.” What he meant is that it is human nature to have a human nature that is very much the product of the society that surrounds us. That human nature is more created than discovered.

If we design workplaces that permit people to find meaning in their work, we will be designing a human nature that values work,

So is a theory about human nature a discovery, or is it an invention? I believe that often, it is more invention than discovery. I think that ideas, like Adam Smith’s, about what motivates people to work have shaped the nature of the workplace. I think they have shaped the workplace in directions that are unfortunate. What this means is that instead of walking around thinking that “well, work just is what it is, and we have to deal with it,” we should be asking whether the way work is is the way it should be. My answer to that question is an unequivocal no.