Wilhelm Röpke on Why Do We Work
A Humane Economist on the Meaning of Work A possibly apocryphal story highlights the key idea of this 20th century German-Swiss economist. Röpke was walking along a road with a famous colleague Ludwig von Mises. Walking by land that was in high demand for residential...On Lateness: True Causes and Right Solutions
By Isaac I’m often late. Fortunately, I have no boss and my students—from whom I often rob 5 minutes of lecture time (although I try to make up for it with class-relevant jokes) —can’t punish me. But bosses can—and usually do. The results? Some results are...How managing stifles initiative and prevents joy
Psychologists on the impossibility of management—even for NINA puzzles The University of Rochester psychologists Edward Deci, Richard Ryan, and their associates carried, perhaps, the most ambitious contemporary theoretical and empirical research on motivation. They...Incentive plans: Addictive for people and ruinous for companies
Taleb and Whitney of why incentives are just another sick game A big bank announced its annual profits—not very big this year—with a whole third of those going as bonuses for traders. Traders ususally make many jealous and some outraged. They shouldn’t. Listen to the...
McGregor and Whitney on “making the numbers”
The exciting game of “making the numbers.” In Freedom, Inc. we wrote: “Because you get what you measure, your measurement becomes the performance. And before long, rather than boosting your firm to ever-faster growth and ever-higher profitability, you have...Follow Freedominc
