“The problem, often not discovered until late in life, is that when you look for things in life like love, meaning, motivation, it implies they are sitting behind a tree or under a rock. The most successful people in life recognize, that in life they create their own love, they manufacture their own meaning, they generate their own motivation. For me, I am driven by two main philosophies, know more today about the world than I knew yesterday. And lessen the suffering of others. You'd be surprised how far that gets you.” 
― Neil deGrasse Tyson

None of these things are like the other. Enjoy :) 

Bryce Tweet

More National Park Twitter controversy. Bryce Canyon National Park sent a tweet out the day after the Bears Ears National Monument was designated congratulating it – along with a picture of a mail slot bearing their name. In response, Utah congressman Jason Chaffetz (who opposed the monument) has filed a letter probing whether or not Bryce had advance notice of the designation. Some memorable quotes from the letter: “when was a Bears Ears map slot created in the Bryce Canyon National Park’s front desk national parks and monuments map area?” and “the message created the appearance that officials at Bryce Canyon coordinated with the White House prior to this most recent designation.” Umm.. don't you have anything else to worry about (mail slots - really?? sore loser much?) But, good excuse to look at some pictures of the beautiful Bryce Canyon 

Extrinsic vs Intrinsic Motivation

I’ve been thinking a lot about motivation. As a teacher, we talk a lot about building intrinsic motivation, but does it even exist? I’m not so sure. Stay with me here.

Steven Reiss, a psychology professor at OSU doesn’t think so. His book, "Myths of Intrinsic Motivation" , posits that there are actually 16 basic desires that motivate and guide our behaviors – not just 2 types. He says that there are many different things that work to motivate people and make them happy – to judge that one (intrinsic) is better than another (extrinsic) is a value judgement. 

There is also a problem with the definition of intrinsic motivation itself.  Generally, intrinsic motivation is supposed to be an internal motivating force. I do this thing because I want to do it, not because of what I am receiving as a result - externally or materially. The often cited example is learning. A child (ideally) should grow from extrinsic motivations (working for rewards and punishments) to a self-actualized love of learning that they are invested in. But the means and ends will differ. It may look as though a student is doing their best work because they love learning for its own sake, but they have actually been conditioned to expect the praise and reward of being a motivated student – so the external forces are still the motivator. 

An article I read in Psychology Today said that motivators are only labeled as intrinsic simply because we cannot identify the reinforcing consequence. A reinforcing consequence can be positive or negative – this happens as a result of this. When we see a child reading a book we assume it is because they love to read. But again, we may not see or understand the reinforcing consequences that exist – that their parent’s value achievement, they are motivated by grades, they like the praise they receive, they want to get a pizza in Book It (does that still exist??) etc.  

As for adults, Erving Goffman wrote extensively about losing/saving face – the mask that we wear in social situations to keep us from embarrassing or painful stigma. Saving face is a motivator – but it is intrinsic? If I’m acting a certain way because I simply want to save face is that an intrinsic motivator? I don’t think so. I go to work each day because I get paid (external motivation). I do a good job because I want to be seen as competent (external). Even this blog is not simply because I love research and writing – I want to practice these things in order to be more successful in other areas (external) and I want to be a well-rounded interesting person (external). 

The literature on rewards is also not always clear-cut. Some meta-analyses have found that rewards actually don’t squash motivation as we have been lead to believe – except when linked to performance levels. 

External or internal, to me, the real question is – does it even matter? If one student is motivated by grades and another by some magic love of learning for its own sake shouldn’t we just be concerned that they are in fact learning? What do you think?

Longcuts

I was listening to a podcast a month or so ago, I don’t even remember which one, but Seth Godin was the guest and he was talking about “longcuts”. A longcut is basically the opposite of a shortcut. Since I heard the term I have been kind of obsessed with it. I think so often - especially now in our tech obsessed world - we try to do everything faster, but that doesn’t always make for a better result.

I read a study about literal shortcuts – the kind you take to avoid traffic on the way home from work. It said that often shortcuts become the longcut because everyone is in a hurry to take the shortcut that it is no longer shorter. I think this is true in so many things. If you want to save time painting a wall so you skip the primer – the paint ends up needing several more coats, which takes more time, money etc. I think this is all intuitive and we are aware of it even when we are taking the shorter, “easier” way out – but it doesn’t stop us from doing it. 

There is an efficiency paranoia that has led to all kinds of “hacks” online – ways to do things possibly faster - but inelegantly. Often these hacks require more time to learn than it would have taken to just do the thing the normal way.  So, before you take a shortcut or attempt a “life hack” remember the long cut. The long cut is often more worthwhile. Speed doesn’t trump quality and while outcomes are important – so is the process! 

Year of Without

I’m finishing up my month without coffee and…. It was kinda easy. Like I’ve written before, I have drank at least 2-3 cups of black coffee every day for over ten years - so I thought this would be really difficult. I still drank tea so I’m not totally caffeine free or anything, but I am still surprised at how easy it has been. 

I’m learning through this process of restriction that I actually already have a great deal of willpower – in fact, people who know me well might say too much (that can sometimes become purposeless stubbornness if I’m not careful). I just have to set the standard for myself. That is the key. Once I tell myself I am or am not doing something I will always follow through – it’s the initial decision that gets me. So while the restriction itself has not been hard, it has been super enlightening to understand my own behaviors and emotions. 

What have you restricted yourself from? What did you learn?

Private Prisons

In the last month there have been so many news stories that are shocking and quite frankly absurd that it can sometimes be hard to keep up. This is one that I hope doesn’t get lost in the news cycle. Prison reform is something I am deeply passionate about and there have been two possibly huge impact rollbacks of positive policy changes just in the last couple of days. 

One – Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced yesterday that the administration would rollback the policy Obama announced last summer to stop contracting with private prisons. This is deeply disturbing. While federal prisons only account for a small fraction of privately housed inmates, the private prison system is a disgrace to our democracy. The two largest prison corporations have funneled millions of dollars to candidates and spent even more lobbying for their cause – more people in prison for longer sentences to make more money. They now have profits of over 3.3 billion annually while the private prison population doubled in just 10 years. Private prison contracts have occupancy quotas (some of 100%) that, obviously, require more arrests and imprisonment to keep up with. 

More people in prison only lead to more problems. Prisonization makes acclimating back to society difficult for many reasons, and many prisoners have no resources or skills to help them. Adequate housing and a job after release are two of the major factors that reduce recidivism but they are hard to come by when many former inmates are rejected from jobs, housing, food programs and educational support. The Bureau of Prisons educational and vocational programs have shrunk to half the size they were 10 years ago and we know that lower educational attainment increases the odds of incarceration on the front end. 

I could go on and on but the bottom line is, “With the growing influence of the prison lobby, the nation is, in effect, commoditizing human bodies for an industry in militant pursuit of profit.” 

Read more here and here. 

Two – Prison phone calls. This hasn’t happened yet, but this article is reporting that the regulations on cost for phone calls from prison will likely be one the first things on the chopping block after Trump appoints two new members to the FCC. Some rates have been as high as $14 per minute. Per. Minute. This is super important. Whether you care about a prisoner’s ability to call home or not – think about their families. Think about the fact that strong connections and social bonds are a great predictor of reduction in recidivism. Reduction in recidivism = less prisoners = less of your taxes = happier families = on and on and on. It’s all connected. It affects us all. Be aware. 

Read more here and here. 

Happy Friday :)