Drive

Am in the middle of reading the book, "Drive", from author, Daniel Pink.
The book seems to strengthen my belief that we are due for a wisdom revolution,
for a kindness revolution, for a slow departure of the world of greed.

He started talking about wikipedia, a huge online encyclopedia,
completely composed and written by amateurs and experts, all for free.

Can you imagine?
An encyclopedia, if we would pay writers for all pages inside,
how much it would cost?

Then he talked about a range of experiments done by psychologists.
Each of them showed that financial incentive tended to interfere with a good output
rather than to enhance it.

In one of the studies they looked at the effect of payment on people solving a puzzle.
Without payment it took on average 5 minutes to solve the puzzle.
When people were promised to get $20 if they solved the puzzle within 5 minutes,
the average time went up from 5 to more than 8 minutes.

In another study, they recruited people who expressed an interest in blood donation.
One third was promised nothing and about 50% went to donate within 4 weeks.
One third was promised $50 and about 30% went to donate within 4 weeks
One third was promised $50 but it would be all donated to a charity of their choice, and about 50% went to donate within 4 weeks.

There are so many more experiments showing that we are slowly becoming more caring about a life filled with purpose, a life that makes a positive difference for others, than being society filled with greed and egotism.

Science now seem to back up the dream of a kindness revolution coming. Let's jump on the wagon and start practicing kindness to strangers as much as we can :)

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