flintstones, spare time, revolution, Toby Elwin, blog

The Great Spare-Time Revolution

motivation, tv, spare time, wikipedia, clay shark, daniel pink, toby elwin, blog

Free time, spare time, where to find time.

Here’s a staggering thought for those who feel they have no spare time:  estimates for all those Wikipedia articles, edits, and arguments about articles and edits come to around 100, million hours of human labor.

100 million hours!

Where do people find that time for a, as any economist might suggest, a seemingly, unpaid and thankless endeavor?

But wait, hold that a moment … an even more staggering endeavor:  Americans watch about 200, billion hours of TV a year.

Where, oh where, to find that time?

Motivation = Surplus Time

I gleaned those above bits from Wired Magazine’s interview Cognitive Surplus: The Great Spare-Time Revolution that talks Daniel Pink’s latest book:  Drive:  The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us and Clay Shirky latest book:  Cognitive Surplus:  Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age.

If the above quotes on spare time don’t prompt a scratch of the chin and motivation to read the article, what about:

When someone buys a TV, the number of consumers goes up by one, but the number of producers stays the same.

When someone buys a computer or mobile phone, the number of consumers and producers both increase by one.

If you want to know about motivation, I can sum it up:  people are motivated by internal desires; their internal desires.

There is nothing you can do to change that.  Threats won’t work for long and money doesn’t drive everyone.

So, tap into what motivates each and every person and you are on your way to manage and lead others … effectively.

It is not meant to sound simple, but like the G.I. Joe T.V. show said, “now you know; and knowing is half the battle”.

Daniel Pink, Drive, Toby Elwin, motivation
Clay Shirky, Toby Elwin, Cognitive Surplus, creativity
Subscribe to Email Posts and Join 710 New Friends
I believe in your privacy and will never sell or spam your email.

Share this Post

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.