[business,quote] On intrinsic motivation

[piggymouse]

An insightful observation by Chris Miner. Via vit_r.

"So one day they want it the building painted blue. So we paint it blue. The next day, they thank us for the excellent work but have a new concept and the building should be red. So we paint it red. Then they come in the next day, thank us for our excellent work, and announce the new color is orange. I don't understand the problem."

He paused a moment and explained:

"At some point you stop being a painter and become the brush."

This alienation is a common problem, not really confined just to IT or even to consulting business in general. This is not about your lack of understanding how the work you do contributes to the project success. This is not about allocation of responsibility vs. allocation of benefits. This must be something much deeper and I cannot yet even begin to understand it. The punchline is good though.

Comments

[piggymouse.livejournal.com]

Again, this all goes well beyond IT. One can blame this on the dominance of leftist thinking in modern Western social science.

The passage above on being a brush was simply tempting me to refer to Marxist theory of alienation, but, being a bear with very little brain, I just decided to skip it.

[ipain.livejournal.com]

surely it goes beyond and to the heart. and western social science was unfortunately spared by leftist thinking and got just some leftover leftings wordings. and here is the google out of 'blue'.

alienation is a psychological concept too. this switch - when tools become goals - is a popular pathway to social disadaptation. kids are alienated from knowledge in schools - is a popular education topic now.