Archive for April, 2014

Objectivity & Subjectivity

Back in school and Uni, I liked looking at matters from different points of view. Whilst my logical mind was able to keep matters impartial and objective, I also enjoyed looking on the same matters from more intuitive aspects… or the so called “intangibles” of the matter. At the time, things like the meanings behind what appears obvious were always intriguing to me. Metaphors, imagery, analogies and symbols… they were far more fascinating than their rational counterparts. Because to me, they were fun! They didn’t have to be real… they only had to offer an alternative which could be plausible… and it just made everything a lot more interesting.

Fast forward half a decade later, I kinda have forgotten all of that.
It’s not so much as maturing as life progressed. But all of life’s realities gets thrown at you whether you like it or not. Matters like work, money, family, friends… (I think you get the idea…). They really drain you… and it’s hard to not let it get to you. These things are all really important in my life, but I don’t know anymore.
I feel like it’s made me mechanistic and straight-forward. I can see them objectively for what they are, and that is all there is to it. But now that I think about it… where did the passion go? I just no longer care anymore I think. I still want to believe and live in dreams. I struggle to hold on to those ideals… yet, they seem fleeting before my very eyes. I struggle to grasp the wisps of air… desperately, frantically… but if I really am honest with myself, I am just really tired.

I know that staying positive is probably the only ideal way to move forward and to keep moving forward. But I think to myself, by doing this, I will have blind-folded myself and allowed it to lead me by blind faith alone. And I question that reality. Because to me, that is just not real. I do not believe in it and I certainly would not put myself into that situation by choice. It’s kinda like the matrix analogy now that I think about it. Do I take the red pill or do I take the blue one? My practical mind would want me [NO] …force me choose to know the truth or else I will forever regret it. Yet knowing what I know now, the blue pill is temping and I can totally see why someone would choose it over taking the red. A world where things just made sense and was easy, it’s still living life isn’t it?
So why question society? Why fight the machine? They’ve been tested generation through generation, so why disprove it? (Just like any reason why we do anything  really… ALL in the name of science and liberty… am I right? “Hah…”)
But no… every fiber within my body would choose to fight through this in reality… I only wish that it wasn’t so damn hard! Till this point, I don’t regret the choices I have made. And if given the chance to do it again, I would probably do the same thing… but I do wish for some things to be different…
And now here I am again… I find myself dreaming and wishing…

2014
04/29
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Extrinsic Motivators do not work for the creative…

I was just listening to a TED talk that had been extremely fascinating. I didn’t catch the start of it, so I didn’t find out who the speaker was, but the topic was about how extrinsic motivators are not great ways to encourage creative productivity. As a more simpler and diluted version, I will narrate some of the things that were said. He described several examples whereby different experimental groups were given greater incentives for producing fastest and the best results. What was really interesting was that the group that were offered the greatest extrinsic incentives actually had the worst times and results, in comparison to the groups that were offered little or no extrinsic incentive.

Apparently, creativity cannot be produced effectively by offering greater extrinsic offerings. To truly drive the more complex and complicated creative aspects of the brain, he states that scientists believes that the participants require ‘Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose’ intrinsic values to move towards the more effective direction. He had mentioned that there were some companies around the world that implemented strategies that allowed for greater autonomy, mastery, and purpose. He said there were some companies, such as Google that allowed their employees 20% of the time to do whatever work they wanted. There was another company that allowed their employees to not have to follow a schedule. They had no obligation to attend any meetings, nor be in the office, or at work… as long as they got the job done. Allowing the people to choose when they did things allowed the freedom of their own planning, and apparently productivity went up.

Anyways, I found the talk really interesting. Whilst I may not agree with everything the guy had said, he did prove a pretty valid case. Thanks for listening…

2014
04/09
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