In the selected presentation on TED Talks, Dan Ariely talks
about what makes us feel good about our work. He talks about what motivates us
to do the things we do every day. Dan explains about the goals we all aim for
on every little thing we do and what would happen if that goal suddenly
disappear right after we are completed or near completion.
Dan explains that everything we do is for feeling a sense of
purpose, whether we like the task or not. Whether the result is being appreciated
by the person or someone else, it’s a matter of being appreciated or feeling
rewarded.
During the presentation Dan talks about multiple experiments
and scenarios that were tested to prove his point on why we work. Dan talks about one of his past student who
worked weeks on a PowerPoint presentation for a company merger. The student
summited the PowerPoint to his boss a day before it was due and he received a “Good
job but the merger is off.” The student was crushed. The whole time he had a
purpose. Without the purpose, the end
result was pointless.
Dan has multiple examples and as he talked from one to
another there’s are simple slides to go with each examples. Some of those
slides seems like they are just there for the purpose of the example. If the slides weren’t there it wouldn’t
matter because his explanation was good enough. There were moments during the
presentation where Dan had some humorous parts. His tone was energetic and he
had a good pace.
After watching his presentation, it did inspire me. It makes
me think about the things I do at work and the things I have my employees/
coworkers do.
