I’m not convinced that motivations are well understood, least of all by me. You see, I was taught in economics that perfectly rational people will respond to a set of incentives in a perfectly rational way.\u00c2\u00a0While I’m sure that that makes sense in a textbook, and of course for the graphs and models which derive from that axiom, it doesn’t make sense as a framework through which to observe life nor make decisions regarding the advancement of it.<\/p>\n
And so comes forth the challenge of understanding what motivates.<\/p>\n
Since a large-scale operation to discover isn’t an option, I found it most pertinent to find the answer in myself. Instead of comically interviewing myself on the subject however, I’ve been looking for others ideas of motivation to see if it is something to which I can subscribe.<\/p>\n
It lead me to an article on Steve Newcomb’s blog<\/a> about building a cult culture at a startup. Steve Newcomb was the founder of\u00c2\u00a0Powerset<\/a> which is now a part of Bing.com. This paragraph here really got me:<\/p>\n Would I ever do an equity-only deal? That’s a pretty awesome question. Does that mean that the idea motivates you so much you know it’s going to succeed? Or is it that the money you make is irrelevant in the short term versus the ability to cash out in the long term? Does it mean committing to a project for 2-3 years to vest enough of the equity such that if there is a liquidation event then it’s all worth it?<\/p>\n One million and one questions flew through my mind in an instant. And I came back to the original which was, “Would I ever take an equity-only deal?”<\/p>\n I quickly realized that the answer was no. Not because I’d want money instead of the equity, that’s not the problem. I think the problem is that the motivation doesn’t come from the expected result, but by the journey that gets me there. Having the equity doesn’t give me the power to control, in some shape or form, the journey. I know that no end result is guaranteed, but I do know that I have to get from point A today to some point unknown in the future, and that I want to enjoy it while I go down that path.<\/p>\n Nonetheless, there was much more in this article to glean from, and so I’ll return to it tomorrow. Maybe the answer lies here, but really what the answer isn’t lies here, and the answer lies somewhere else.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’m not convinced that motivations are well understood, least of all by me. You see, I was taught in economics that perfectly rational people will respond to a set of incentives in a perfectly rational way.\u00c2\u00a0While I’m sure that that makes sense in a textbook, and of course for the graphs and models which derive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[4,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pQyAq-6s","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":404,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2010\/11\/01\/understanding-motivation-part-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":400,"position":0},"title":"Understanding motivation - part 2","date":"November 1, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"My younger brother called me today to let me know about his LSAT score. He studied pretty much non-stop from mid-May through mid-October for this test. It's on the margin where test scores make a difference, and based on a chart of law school acceptance scores found here, the difference\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "just thinking out loud"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":411,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2010\/11\/16\/understanding-motivation-part-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":400,"position":1},"title":"Understanding motivation \u00e2\u20ac\u201c part 3","date":"November 16, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"So the proverbial tomorrow of blog writing has finally arrived, and here is the last of my three part series on motivation. I can finally speak to the final piece, the keystone as it were, of the motivation puzzle in my mind. Simply put, it comes down to validation. From\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "just thinking out loud"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1899,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2018\/07\/22\/2018-goals-june-update\/","url_meta":{"origin":400,"position":2},"title":"2018 Goals - June Update","date":"July 22, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"tldr; Losing track, and losing motivation :-( Get to 175 lbs It's worse than May, but realistically that was unsustainable. I'm starting to ask myself whether driving towards a number really matters. Or whether I'm really just looking to sustain a lifestyle, and the number is a barometer of if\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "New Year Resolutions"","img":{"alt_text":"June 2018 weight update","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/img_6159.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":319,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2010\/03\/29\/the-self-an-introduction\/","url_meta":{"origin":400,"position":3},"title":"The Self - An Introduction","date":"March 29, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Personal growth is a constant reflection of the choices one has taken to aid the Self in making better decisions at forks in the path to come. Personal growth isn't something one does by reading a book and executing against its vision. That isn't personal growth, but instead a cheap\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the Self essay"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":381,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2010\/08\/11\/it-isnt-supposed-to-make-sense\/","url_meta":{"origin":400,"position":4},"title":"It isn't supposed to make sense","date":"August 11, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Forever is a really long time. To really make forever with anyone work, there is a lot of give and take. Parents, siblings, lovers, children, friends... It's a lot of people with whom you are both consciously and subconsciously compromising. There are incredibly silly things that are just resolved in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ramadan"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":37,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2006\/11\/20\/birthday-horoscope\/","url_meta":{"origin":400,"position":5},"title":"Birthday Horoscope","date":"November 20, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"\"This New Moon in your sign symbolizes the initiation process you may now experience. With buoyant Jupiter so close, you could be feeling upbeat about the life-changing possibilities that are before you. But your Scorpio mind cannot let go of the darkness on a whim, so analyze what you are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chinese fortune cookie"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n