• Drive

  • The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
  • By: Daniel H. Pink
  • Narrated by: Daniel H. Pink
  • Length: 5 hrs and 53 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (7,857 ratings)

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Drive  By  cover art

Drive

By: Daniel H. Pink
Narrated by: Daniel H. Pink
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Publisher's summary

The New York Times best seller that gives listeners a paradigm-shattering new way to think about motivation from the author of When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing.

Most people believe that the best way to motivate is with rewards like money - the carrot-and-stick approach. That's a mistake, says Daniel H. Pink (author of To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Motivating Others). In this provocative and persuasive new book, he asserts that the secret to high performance and satisfaction - at work, at school, and at home - is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world. Drawing on four decades of scientific research on human motivation, Pink exposes the mismatch between what science knows and what business does - and how that affects every aspect of life. He examines the three elements of true motivation - autonomy, mastery, and purpose - and offers smart and surprising techniques for putting these into action in a unique book that will change how we think and transform how we live.

©2009 Daniel H. Pink (P)2009 Penguin

Critic reviews

"Pink makes a convincing case that organizations ignore intrinsic motivation at their peril." (Scientific American)

"Persuasive...Harnessing the power of intrinsic motivation rather than extrinsic remuneration can be thoroughly satisfying and infinitely more rewarding." (Miami Herald)

"These lessons are worth repeating, and if more companies feel emboldened to follow Mr. Pink's advice, then so much the better." (Wall Street Journal)

Featured Article: 35+ Quotes About Hard Work to Keep You Motivated and Moving Forward


The things most worth doing require the most from us—it takes hard work to accomplish important tasks, achieve major goals, and realize your dreams. Commitment, sweat, exhaustion, frustration, and a willingness to fail are all necessary parts of taking on challenges. When you’re in the middle of a difficult project, there will be times when you’re tempted to simply give up. In such moments, look to these quotes about hard work to keep you going.

What listeners say about Drive

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Booooring

Would you try another book from Daniel H. Pink and/or Daniel H. Pink?

I was looking forward to the one coming out in January, but after this one, lets see...

What do you think your next listen will be?

something with a more dynamic presentation.

What didn’t you like about Daniel H. Pink’s performance?

Monotone, droning, unbearable, zzzzzz....

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Drive?

Introduction stating what will be in each chapter.

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    4 out of 5 stars

Useful but hard to get through

The narration could be better, the actor is overdoing it with the stress and emphasis. The book feels monotonous and hard to follow despite the interesting topic in general. I wonder if reading the paper book would be easier.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Good knowledge not as good delivery

Did not get captured about the way the info is delivered. Important topic in the book so learn it

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A crucial read for a mor fulfilling life!

Dan Pink does an exceptional job of distilling the research on motivation so that we can shape our home and workplaces to improve our lives. As an educator, this book resonated with me and has given me a clear vision of how to use autonomy, mastery and purpose to help teachers do their best work to help kids learn.

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Must Listen!!

I just started my audio book journey..honestly I find it hard to stay tuned in on many books..but the narrator of this book is easy to focus in on. I love his ideas on drive. Great listen!!

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Repetitive

Would you listen to Drive again? Why?

Yes, because there were snippets that were extremely valuable.

Would you recommend Drive to your friends? Why or why not?

Yes, because I think too many people are motivated by the wrong reasons and they then motivate others ineffectively.

Any additional comments?

Good just repeated the message a number of times

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Half a review of research, half a how-to-do-it

The first half of this book describes research done by other psychologists. It is competently done, although the 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 descriptions become quite annoying after reading Friedman's use of the same system in The World is Flat. The second half attempts to provide a list of do's and don'ts to accomplish everything from running your firm to dealing with your kids. Other than some lab experiments, there is virtually no research that finds that these do's and don'ts actually work in the real world. He even suggests that readers should submit their own ideas to his web site. There are very few examples of how "motivation 3.0" has actually improved performance in the real world outside the software industry. There is no original research. If you are interested in these subjects, then I would skip this book and read Kahneman or Ariely.

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Meh

Book is not surprising. Watch the ted talk first and you'll get the highpoints. Too many bad metaphors about society and computers.

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Wonderful content in need of professional narrator

Excellent content that could have been much more effective with a really good narrator. It is typical of some of the non-fiction content where statistics just get folded into narration and get lost. This might be a better item to buy in hardcover if you're really interested in following this beyond the fact that it's an interesting concept.

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Motivation As Software

Think of motivation as software and the culture in which it functions as an operating system. Pink explains that while we live in a OS 3.0 world, our motivation techniques are still 2.0 – based on carrot and stick. The industrial world worked well this way, but carrots and sticks discourage creativity.

Pink also explains that human endeavor is typically algorithmic or heuristic – step by step or creative problem solving. Since algorithmic endeavors can be standardized, automated or outsourced, heuristic endeavors are the future in our 3.0 world. Motivation for heuristic endeavors are most frequently intrinsic. Thus, employees, students, athletes… should be nurtured, given ownership and encourage to direct themselves. Pink fills the book with evidence from psychology, economics and neuroscience. While the idea is simple, the documentation is interesting. For a relatively short book, there is a big message.

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