Kyle Dickerson – Page 97 – If we had a Marriage, These Would be its Thoughts

Book Discussion: Punished by Rewards (Part 2 - Motivation)

February 3, 2012 4:35 pm

In Part 1 I discussed Kohn's argument for rewards/punishments creating self-centered individuals and how urging a focus on rewards/punishments can have unintended consequences by encouraging short-cutting the desired behavior in order to satisfy the requirements of receiving the reward or avoiding the punishment.

Here, in Part 2, I will discuss motivation and the interaction between it and rewards/punishments.

And in Part 3 I'll go over Kohn's alternatives to rewards and punishments.

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Many people want an answer to the question, "How do I motivate my employees/students/children?" Kohn's response is that you don't. The best you can do is get demotivators out of their way and provide a nurturing, encouraging, environment.

Well, surely this isn't right. If I tell my kid that for every piece of paper they fold in half I'll give them a dollar it's almost a sure bet that I won't be able to find an unfolded piece of paper before long. Certainly that means the promise of payment motivated the child to fold paper, right? And you are absolutely right. So let's discuss what Kohn means and how it applies.

Intrinsic versus Extrinsic Motivation

We make a distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is your internal desire to do something. It stems from your own interest in the matter and the enjoyment you find in pursuing it. Extrinsic motivation is applied from the outside--it is external to your self. Paying someone money to do something is to give them an extrinsic motivator. The idea is that we only do things that we are motivated to do, however that motivation may be either intrinsic or extrinsic. And there's a big difference between the two.

A person motivated intrinsically is much more likely to persevere at a difficult task and for much longer periods of time than someone motivated extrinsically. Many actions undertaken because of extrinsic motivation will quickly disappear once the outside factor is removed.

What's really interesting, however, is the interaction between the two. Extrinsically motivated actions often disappear at the loss of the motivator, but extrinsic motivation can actually replace intrinsic motivation and getting the intrinsic motivation back is difficult. That is to say, if a child enjoys drawing pictures and you tell them you'll pay them for each picture they draw (and do), and then you stop paying them, the child is very likely to no longer have an interest in drawing pictures (at least for some period of time). You have, essentially, ripped from them their intrinsic motivation, replaced it with an external motivator, and then took away the external motivator.

Think about what this means, long term, for the kinds of things to which we apply extrinsic motivators. It is possible (though not assured) that you can destroy the joy someone finds in an activity by actively rewarding them for doing the activity.

Consequences of Extrinsic Motivators

The ability for extrinsic to replace intrinsic motivation is not the end of the problems though. Extrinsic motivators work great on simple, mechanical tasks. However, they fail miserably at tasks requiring creativity or complex problem solving. In fact, not only do they fail, they result in worse performance than when no extrinsic motivator is present. One possible explanation is that because the motivator focuses our attention on the motivator rather than the task we fail to think deeply about the task in our rush to obtain the reward or avoid the punishment.

Artistic works produced for commissions are judged to be less creative than those done without. Students take longer trying to find the solution to creative problems when told their performance is being measured. When performance is being measured and reported students become more interested in how they're doing compared to their peers than how they're doing on the task.

Extrinsic motivators also harm the relationship between the motivator and the motivatee. It sets the two apart as one having power and the other not. It sets up a relationship of control rather than respect. It often leads to resentment.

And there are plenty of other problems with the use of extrinsic motivators.

Nurturing Intrinsic Motivation

I stated at the beginning that Kohn's recommendation was to remove demotivators instead of enacting extrinsic motivators. This is, of course, much harder than just promising rewards. Part 3 will discuss some of the alternatives.

Book Discussion: Punished by Rewards (Part 1 - Self-Centeredness and Unintended Consequences)

4:28 pm

I've just finished reading Alfie Kohn's book Punished by Rewards. I found it very interesting. He approaches the use of rewards (and punishments) from a general position and then specifically within business, school, and parenting. Most of his arguments are supported with research (and when they aren't he plainly labels them as his opinions without documented research) with references and end-notes comprising 106 pages. I'll also probably be drawing on things I read in Nurture Shock and Drive which cover similar topics.

I'm going to break this up into 3 posts because there's a lot to discuss and this way you might actually read it. This post will discuss Kohn's points on how behaviorist approaches result in self-centeredness and the unintended consequences of reward/punishment fixation. Part 2 will discuss the effect of rewards/punishment on motivation, and part 3 will go over Kohn's alternatives. My apologizes to Mr. Kohn if I misrepresent his arguments in any way.

Unlike Erin's recent experience of an author's insistence that a technique will always work, Kohn is much more realistic in the respect that there are very few absolutes (if any) in human behavior and you can only really talk about generalities. However, if you're expecting to find a list of "things to do" to get your kids to behave you won't find it in this book.

One of Kohn's pet-peeves (if I can call it that) is that people only want quick fixes. He is first in line to admit that punishments and rewards are quick fixes, but they're also temporary fixes with lasting negative consequences. He does not offer an alternative quick fix, but instead offers a much broader approach to situations typically governed by bribes or threats to effect long-term development goals rather than immediate compliance.

While he goes into much greater depth on these subjects than I will, there were several things that stuck with me. His discussions resonated with my experiences and I really think he makes a strong case.

I'm going to start this discussion in much the same way that Kohn does. What do you want your employees/students/children to achieve? What are your goals for them? I'll come back to these questions in part 3, but Kohn's broad point (and the "too long; didn't read" version of the book) is that the vast majority of stated responses to these questions are directly undermined by the use of rewards and punishments.

Rewards and Punishments

Before we dive in, lets quickly talk about what we mean by a "reward" or "punishment". Essentially, anything that imposes a positive emotion (reward) or a negative emotion (punishment) qualifies. This could be imposing or removing something pleasant, or imposing or removing something unpleasant. More explicitly, this could be inflicting physical pain, verbal scolding, verbal praising, giving toys, taking away food, giving gold star stickers, monetary bonuses, etc.

That seems like it covers pretty much everything we might do as employers/teachers/parents. And, from Kohn's perspective, that speaks to the pervasiveness of behaviorism. We'll get to the alternatives in part 3, but for now we should point out that there is a component of intention and perception. If you intend your action to be controlling or manipulative then you will probably get some of the negative consequences. Also, if the subject perceives the action as controlling or manipulative you are probably going to see the negative consequences we'll be discussing.

Self-Centeredness

One of his arguments is that rewards and punishments (the classic behaviorist/Skinnerian approaches) create self-centered individuals. Everything is governed by how it affects "me." I don't steal because I'll go to jail. I do my homework because I'll get a good grade. I work hard so I'll get a bonus.

If you ask a behaviorist to do something they are going to ask, "What's in it for me?".

In a strictly behaviorist approach there's no discussion about others or a greater sense of ethics or morality. We are taught that we don't steal simply because we'll go to jail and we ignore the bigger picture of how stealing affects the person we're stealing from. We don't learn that we shouldn't steal because it unfairly deprives another person of their property.

A natural consequence seems to be that if we only do things because of how it will affect us, then the moment we think we can get away from any negative effects, there's nothing stopping us. Why not steal if no one's looking and it's unlikely anyone will find out? I won't go to jail, there will be no negative result for me, and I'll end up with more money. It becomes much easier to rationalize this position if you've only learned to think about yourself and have never been taught to empathize with others or find greater moral/ethical reasons for your actions.

Unintended Consequences

The other side of this is that we learn to focus on the reward/punishment instead of the activity itself. People, in general, will begin looking for ways to bypass the hard part (generally the desired behavior) and just get the reward (or avoid the punishment). If we're taught to focus on good grades then cheating appears as a great way to avoid the hard work of learning, but still get the reward of the good grade. If we're taught to focus on not going to jail then we may look for ways to avoid getting caught instead of not doing something illegal in the first place.

One of my favorite expressions of this type of reasoning was incredibly common throughout my high school and undergraduate experiences. The teacher begins discussing a topic and after a few minutes someone's hand goes up to ask, "Is this going to be on the test?". It's such a perfect example of focusing on the reward (getting a good grade on the test) instead of the thing that actually matters (you know, actually learning something). I saw this exact thing happen dozens of times.

Now, I'd like to pause here for a minute to give you the perspective I'm coming from. I'm not here to argue against grades because I always did poorly and this is my way of making myself feel better by saying grades shouldn't really matter.

Quite the contrary, I always did very well in school. I graduated high school at the top of my class as co-salutatorian. I went through my bachelor's degree on a full-ride scholarship. I'm certainly not saying this to toot my horn; I'm saying it to show that, as someone who succeeded in (and highly benefited from) the current system, I see a better way. A way which would serve everyone better and not just those of us that are adept at the specific school setting we went through.

Kyle's Honey-Wheat Pizza Dough

January 14, 2012 9:45 am

1 package (2 ¼ tsp.) active dry yeast
1 cup warm water (120-130 degrees F)
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
½ tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. honey
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
¼ cup wheat flour
2 ¼ – 2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

In large mixing bowl, mix 1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour, yeast, and salt.
Add warm water and oil.
Mix on low speed for 30 seconds, scraping sides, then on high speed for 3 minutes.
Add honey and Italian seasoning.
Switch to dough hook and mix in wheat flour, then as much of the remaining all-purpose flour as possible.
Turn out onto lightly floured surface and knead 6-8 minutes until moderately stiff (not sticky), adding remaining flour as necessary.
Put dough into medium bowl and lightly coat with oil or cooking spray.
Cover and let rise 20-40 minutes (shorter for thinner crusts, longer for thicker crusts).
Preheat oven and pizza stone to 525 degrees F.
Punch dough down and shape to desired shape.
Remove stone from oven, place dough on heated stone.
Add sauce, cheese, and toppings.
Return to oven and cook for 7-9 minutes until cheese lightly browns.

Dickersons on a Train

January 12, 2012 10:04 pm

We took the train across the country to get to Connecticut for Christmas. We left from Sacramento, switched trains in Chicago, and ended in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Before we get into the story, we'll cut right to the chase: Would we take the train again? Yes. From both of us. That's not to say we didn't have any annoyances, but overall it was a very enjoyable experience.

Personally, one of the best parts was that at no point in time did our belongings get rifled through. We were never patted down, scanned, or otherwise harassed. We made it from California to Connecticut and back and I never even had to get out my driver's license. It was nice.

Also, this is going to be a very picture-heavy post, so be prepared. If you don't care so much for the narrative, I have some general thoughts on riding the train at the very bottom of the post which you still might enjoy.

Anyway, on to the story. We left Sacramento on December 18. We drove up, parked at the station, and waited for our train to arrive. The trip almost failed before it began though because the train was delayed ~20 minutes (which we knew), but we were waiting for an announcement in the station that it had arrived. But for some reason the station agents weren't making their announcements (or the system was broken or something). Anyway, our train had arrived, but we didn't know until an employee heard some of us waiting for the same train talking about what was going on. The employee informed us the train was outside right now! So we hustled it out there and got on with just a couple of minutes to spare.

So we got on the train just fine. We had a private room in the sleeper car which made the journey very pleasant. We had a private bathroom with shower and a sink with a mirror. There's a top bunk that folds down while the bench seat slides down like a futon. Jess' foot is resting on a fold-up jump-seat across from her offering another sitting location. There was a closet with hangers for us to hang our coats and small luggage fit nicely under the seats. There was also a storage ledge above the jump-seat. The room was actually more spacious than I expected it to be. Once you get all your luggage stowed away it's quite comfortable.

This car was a Superliner which has 2 floors and getting up the stairs was a little tricky with all of our luggage, but it's not so big of a deal if you aren't in such a hurry and take a couple of trips.

Our room provided us with a little pamphlet detailing our trip and providing short paragraphs describing the towns we passed through along the way. This provided a nice way of keeping track of our progress and learning a little something about the areas we went through.

The California Zephyr took us up through the Sierra Nevada Mountains and gave us a great view of Donner Lake:

Here's a short video:

I hopped off for a second in Reno in order to get a picture of our car. The dining car was attached directly to our car which made meals really convenient.

From there it was across Nevada and Utah throughout the night. During the night we looked out our window at the stars and at one point I saw a shooting star. That part was very pleasant.

Unfortunately, our first night was not without issue. Apparently, at some point before we got on the heat had been up high and someone messed with the settings, turning the heat to the lowest setting and separately turning off the heating system completely with another switch. So during the night it got cold, very cold. As we passed through Salt Lake City and down through Provo, the temperature in our room dropped down to around 40F. The car attendant was suffering the same conditions and turned the temperature back up, but neglected to notice the other setting change.

The heat came back on while we were off at an early breakfast (the dining car had plenty of heat). Heather didn't seem to mind the cold, she slept great that night.

So we were awake for the last bits of Utah and watched the sunrise as we ate breakfast. Then we watched the scenery as we headed through Colorado and up into the Rocky Mountains:

Here's a longer video of us just cruising along:

We got out to stretch our legs in Fraser, CO, where it was quite cold:

Heather was enjoying herself for most of the trip. This is her with her head thrown back making all sorts of happy noises (though it kind of looks like she's screaming).

Then it was under the Continental Divide via Moffat Tunnel:

Then it was pretty much dark across Nebraska and Iowa. We watched A Muppet Christmas Carol before going to sleep that night. The next day was our last on the California Zephyr. We crossed the Mississippi River and headed in to Chicago.

Jess decided to take a nap that afternoon:

We had a 6-hour layover in Chicago which we spent hanging out in the Metropolitan Lounge (for us hoity-toity first-class passengers). Despite Heather getting too warm while we made our way from the train to the lounge (and thus screaming) it was nice. Then it was just a matter of trying to ignore the old people criticizing our parenting because it had been just so obvious to them what was wrong with her each time she was upset all the way from Sacramento to Chicago and we were just such terrible parents. (They weren't saying this to us, but they were talking plenty loud enough for us to hear 30 feet away.)

Once we were boarded onto our train (the Lake Shore Limited) we went to bed. I woke up during one of our stops and saw this nice little display at the station:

Unfortunately for us, the Lake Shore Limited splits into 2 in Albany and half of it goes to New York City and the other half heads to Boston. The dining car went to NYC, which meant it was on the complete opposite end of the train from our sleeper car. So when we ate meals we had to trudge through 6 coach cars and the snack car. And, perhaps you haven't noticed, but train cars are pretty long (these were ~85'4"). It was around a tenth of a mile from our room to the dining car (1-2 city blocks, depending on the city).

This car was a Viewliner car which only has one floor (East Coast tunnels are shorter), but the car is still fairly tall which meant we had a higher ceiling in our room and there was lots of luggage space because we had shelving above the bathroom and over the hallway. Overall the room is basically the same.

The next day was our last for our train adventure and Heather spent some time kicking a pretzel bag, which she was really enjoying.

Here's a picture of Jess eating breakfast. I actually took it on our way back to California because I forgot to take any pictures of the dining car on the way to Connecticut. Watching the sunrise while eating a stack of pancakes while cruising across the country at 80mph isn't a terrible way to travel. All of our meals were included with the private sleeping room accommodations. So, at each meal time we'd just head into the dining car and order whatever we wanted. The food was pretty decent, on par with your average sit-down-and-eat restaurant.

We arrived in Springfield and my parents and Mollie picked us up and drove us back home to Connecticut.

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The Return Trip

I'm not going to write a separate post for the trip back or include a bunch of pictures. So I'll just summarize it quickly here:

We got back on the Lake Shore Limited in Springfield on Jan 1. During that ride we had some snow across Ohio and Indiana. This was interesting because in the vestibules between cars it was piling up in places and coating things in ice. This made that 1/10 of a mile trek to and from the dining car particularly interesting. We called it the trek through the steerage rabble and the arctic tundra.

The Lake Shore Limited took us to Chicago where we had a 4-hour layover. I discovered via the Internet that there was a Panda Express about a block away so I walked over there to buy us lunch. It was cold out. Colder than it had been the entire time we were in Connecticut.

We boarded the California Zephyr again for our last train ride of the trip. Unfortunately, our car was hot. Each room has an individual thermostat which allows you to set your room to be some amount warmer or cooler than the car temperature. We had our thermostat all the way down but we were still too warm. So we asked our car attendant to turn down the car's thermostat which helped, but it was still too warm.

Jess and I were able to deal with being too warm just fine, but Heather was not as tolerant. Once she gets too hot she screams and screams until she cools down again (at least we believe that was what was happening). So she spent most of that trip in her diaper trying to stay cool, which mostly worked. We were able to get the attendant to turn down the thermostat 1 or 2 more times I think and by the time we were getting in to California the temperature was fine.

We're not sure what the deal was. The rest of the car didn't seem to be particularly warm, but our room sure was.

Also, as we were making our way across Iowa the horn on our engine failed. You're not really allowed to drive a train without a functioning horn. With no horn the train has to stop at each grade crossing and wait for a conductor to get out and verify that the road is safe before continuing on. This is a real problem.

We only did that 2 or 3 times while they worked on a better solution. They eventually arranged for a freight engine to hook up with us and solve our horn problem. The issue there, though, is that the freight engine is only allowed to go 70mph (whereas the passenger engines usually travel at ~80mph).

So the train was getting further and further behind schedule. It didn't really matter to us, but it would have been a real annoyance if your stop ended up being in the middle of the night instead of the evening because of it. When we finally reached Denver they switched out the freight engine and malfunctioning engine for a working passenger engine. By the time we left Denver we were 5 hours behind schedule. But we managed to make up 1.5 hours across Utah and Nevada so we arrived in Sacramento only 3.5 hours later than we would have.

We got back in the early evening on Jan 4 and packed our vast quantities of stuff into the car and drove home (We went with 1 checked bag and returned with 5, because I filled a few with some of my stuff still kicking around in CT. We also came back with a 3-foot tall kangaroo stuffed animal which took its own duffel bag, but arrived safely.). While the train ride was a fun adventure we were glad to be home. I don't think either of us quite appreciated the space in our small little apartment until we came back to it after so many days on the train.

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General Thoughts on Riding the Train

Don't be in a hurry:
Freight traffic gets priority because the freight companies actually own the tracks that Amtrak operates on. So there will be delays that Amtrak has no control over. However, the schedule has a fair bit of room for slip, which means it is often possible to make up a good chunk of time if you fall behind.

Be willing and able to MacGyver yourself solutions to little annoyances:
Our first room had a cabinet door that would swing open with the movement of the train. So we folded up a tissue and stuck it in the door jamb which kept the door in place.

The air on the train was extremely dry. After showering we would leave the bathroom door open to dry out the bathroom and moisten up our air. We eventually started wetting our towels and hanging them from the top bunk which actually made quite a difference in the moisture content of the air.

One of our faucet handles rattled, so we placed a washcloth against it to keep it silent. A part on the top bunk was rattling at some point and, again, a washcloth slid between it and the mattress helped keep it quiet.

Bring small carry-on luggage:
The sleeper rooms have several places to stash small pieces of luggage, but not larger pieces of luggage (you can leave them in a luggage area outside your room, elsewhere in the car, if you want). So rather than bringing one large piece, it's much more convenient to bring 2 or 3 small items that can be stashed away easily.

I feel sick

December 14, 2011 8:59 pm

Unnerving many conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats, the legislation also would deny suspected terrorists, even U.S. citizens seized within the nation's borders, the right to trial and subject them to indefinite detention. House Republican leaders had to tamp down a small revolt among some rank-and-file who sought to delay a vote on the bill. (NPR: House Passes $662B Defense Bill)

While President Bush already took the liberty of stripping U.S. citizens of their rights and denying them trials (e.g. José Padilla). The government did eventually buckle to public pressure and give Padilla a civilian trial.

This new defense bill officially gives the government/military/president permission to simply disappear U.S. citizens. When it passes the Senate and gets signed by the President (which everyone says it will), you will be able to be arrested by the military, hauled off to a secret prison, denied a writ of habeas corpus, denied a trial, and left to rot.

You won't be considered a U.S. citizen, you won't be a prisoner of war. You won't have the protection of the U.S. Constitution or the Geneva Conventions. You simply won't exist.

This is disturbing on so many levels. This is not what justice looks like.

I'm am stunned at how incredibly far our country has fallen in the last 11 years. The idea that we stand for freedom and justice is now just a joke.

The bill is essentially repealing the Posse Comitatus Act and paving the way for us to see the U.S. Army being deployed against U.S. citizens on U.S. soil. It may sound like a far off extreme now, but there were reasons laws were put in place to explicitly forbid this type of stuff.

But most people don't seem to care at all. The complete misplacement of concerns is frustrating. People will scream bloody murder about Netflix charging more, or Apple releasing a new product, or how loud commercials on TV are. But come time for the government to strip you of all judicial protections and the only people complaining are watchdog groups.

It honestly makes me fear for our future as a democratic republic.