FEBRUARY 2017 - AudioFile
After immediately drawing listeners in with his reading of Ariely’s riveting first chapter, narrator Simon Jones continues to hold them close with his relaxed diction and skillful handling of this audiobook’s pathos. Jones’s vocal elegance and thorough understanding of the author’s message promote unexpected engagement with Ariely’s extended essay on what motivates people not just to do their jobs but to really commit themselves to their work or to whatever they are doing. Though Ariely, a psychology professor at Duke, is a career academic, he serves up a fascinating array of memorable research and insights without ever sounding removed from people’s everyday experience of what moves them to become engaged. Jones’s pleasing voice and tasteful interpretations make this audio a memorable listen for anyone interested in what moves us to do what we do. T.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
FEBRUARY 2017 - AudioFile
After immediately drawing listeners in with his reading of Ariely’s riveting first chapter, narrator Simon Jones continues to hold them close with his relaxed diction and skillful handling of this audiobook’s pathos. Jones’s vocal elegance and thorough understanding of the author’s message promote unexpected engagement with Ariely’s extended essay on what motivates people not just to do their jobs but to really commit themselves to their work or to whatever they are doing. Though Ariely, a psychology professor at Duke, is a career academic, he serves up a fascinating array of memorable research and insights without ever sounding removed from people’s everyday experience of what moves them to become engaged. Jones’s pleasing voice and tasteful interpretations make this audio a memorable listen for anyone interested in what moves us to do what we do. T.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2016-09-22
The latest in the TED series: a quirky exploration of the mysteries behind human motivation, in business and relationships.Ariely (Psychology and Behavioral Economics/Duke Univ.; The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to EveryoneEspecially Ourselves, 2012, etc.) was always fascinated with why we pursue goals, whether for financial remuneration or personal satisfaction. We are the CEOs of our own lives.Whatever our official job descriptions, we are all part-time motivators, writes the author, whose interest in such issues stems from tragedy: badly burned in an accident when he was young, hes since wondered why some are more driven to rise above such circumstances. He recalls that the devastating role that helplessness played in my own experiencemade me more deeply appreciate the challenges of being badly injured, the complexity of recovery, and the ways that my experience had deeply changed me. Today, Ariely documents psychological experiments performed at tech companies and universities, convincing him that humans incentivize themselves and others in consistent yet enigmatic ways. He argues that workplace initiativese.g., restrictions regarding employee cubiclescrush our natural motivation. Yet financial compensation is far from an automatic cure-all; though almost all companies use some kind of bonuslittle is known about how effective bonuses really are. At a semiconductor factory, Ariely found a promised voucher for a pizza or praise from a supervisor provoked productivity more reliably than extra money. In nonoccupational contexts, he notes, we have a deep attachment to our own ideas, explaining the satisfaction found in creative pursuits. We are even motivated to control our destinies after deathsee: the mummified nobility of China or Egypt. Ariely writes in an approachable, chipper style, but some readers may find his ambiguous findings unsatisfying, as when he writes, it is impossible to come up with one simple set of motivational rules. A mostly provocative account of how inner turmoil drives us.
