President Barack Obama spoke at my commencement ceremony on Wednesday. How cool is that? Although I was disappointed that he did not attend my party after, his speech was anything but disappointing. I think we can all agree that he took the honorary degree fiasco and brilliantly turned it on its head: “President Crow and the Board of Regents will soon learn about being audited by the IRS.”
He did much more than dish out laughs in his thirty minutes behind the podium. He reminded graduates of the dismal economy we are entering and pointed his finger at greed and self-interested motivation as the cause. He later suggested to “find someone to be successful for. Rise to their hopes and their needs” as an alternative motivation.
At first these statements concerned me. Self interest is and should be the root of all behavior. If I may clarify, I’d like to quote Adam Smith. “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, and the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self interest.” In other words, the baker isn’t motivated to be successful in order to provide me dinner; he is motivated to be successful for himself, by doing what he is comparatively good at (exploiting his comparative advantage.)
And how is one supposed to rise to the hopes and needs of others? When we try and do things for other people, massive inefficiency ensues. For example, after Christmas the common practice is to return and exchange the gifts our loved ones thoughtfully purchased for us. This practice is so common that we even include gift receipts. The root of this inefficiency lies in the fact that a person best satisfies their wants by individually pursuing them—not by depending on others.
I don’t believe, however, that the President was trying to refute these basic ideals in his statements. Actually, in holistic context, an alternative message can be taken—one that I whole-heartedly believe in (as evident in most of my prior postings.) Rather than calling for selfless motivations, I think he was really trying to endorse intrinsic motivations—which are entirely selfish.
He denounces a slew of extrinsic motivations that drive the behavior that may have led to this economic downturn: “being on this ‘who's who’ list or that top 100 list; how much money you make and how big your corner office is; whether you have a fancy enough title or a nice enough car.” When one begins to think extrinsically, they are prone to sacrificing their morals or their long-term success to achieve these extrinsic milestones.
“A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.” Ayn Rand always puts it so well. This desire to achieve is the intrinsic motivation that I believe the President was trying to get at in his speech. Act for the sake of the ideals behind that behavior, not for the rewards that may or may not come with it. This should not be confused with "finding someone to be successful for." You should be successful for your self, intrinsically. This is what he is asking we keep within us as our sole motivation, and what he tasks our generation with changing.
He did much more than dish out laughs in his thirty minutes behind the podium. He reminded graduates of the dismal economy we are entering and pointed his finger at greed and self-interested motivation as the cause. He later suggested to “find someone to be successful for. Rise to their hopes and their needs” as an alternative motivation.
At first these statements concerned me. Self interest is and should be the root of all behavior. If I may clarify, I’d like to quote Adam Smith. “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, and the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self interest.” In other words, the baker isn’t motivated to be successful in order to provide me dinner; he is motivated to be successful for himself, by doing what he is comparatively good at (exploiting his comparative advantage.)
And how is one supposed to rise to the hopes and needs of others? When we try and do things for other people, massive inefficiency ensues. For example, after Christmas the common practice is to return and exchange the gifts our loved ones thoughtfully purchased for us. This practice is so common that we even include gift receipts. The root of this inefficiency lies in the fact that a person best satisfies their wants by individually pursuing them—not by depending on others.
I don’t believe, however, that the President was trying to refute these basic ideals in his statements. Actually, in holistic context, an alternative message can be taken—one that I whole-heartedly believe in (as evident in most of my prior postings.) Rather than calling for selfless motivations, I think he was really trying to endorse intrinsic motivations—which are entirely selfish.
He denounces a slew of extrinsic motivations that drive the behavior that may have led to this economic downturn: “being on this ‘who's who’ list or that top 100 list; how much money you make and how big your corner office is; whether you have a fancy enough title or a nice enough car.” When one begins to think extrinsically, they are prone to sacrificing their morals or their long-term success to achieve these extrinsic milestones.
“A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.” Ayn Rand always puts it so well. This desire to achieve is the intrinsic motivation that I believe the President was trying to get at in his speech. Act for the sake of the ideals behind that behavior, not for the rewards that may or may not come with it. This should not be confused with "finding someone to be successful for." You should be successful for your self, intrinsically. This is what he is asking we keep within us as our sole motivation, and what he tasks our generation with changing.
I was also very impressed with his speech. Not only his humor but his humility resounded throughout. He responded to the assertion made by university spokeswoman Sharon Keeler that "his body of work is yet to come. That's why we're not recognizing him with a degree". He said, "I come here not to dispute the suggestion that I haven't yet achieved enough in my life. I come to embrace it; to heartily concur...that no matter how much you've done, or how successful you've been, there's always more to do, more to learn, more to achieve."
ReplyDeleteI also like what Niko has to say about the influence of detrimental extrinsic motivation. In Adam Smith's earlier work, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, he says "How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it, except the pleasure of seeing it." I would add that there are in fact benefits we derive from helping others, even beyond the warm and fuzzys.If we allow our inherent altruism not to be overshadowed, we can accomplish much good. Thank You Mr. President.
The "desire to achieve" has somehow been replaced by the desire to gain social acceptance/success. I am proud to hear this distinction made between the two, especially from someone so young.
ReplyDeleteI could only hope that the other tens of thousand+ in that audience discerned the same message.