No such thing as intrinsic motivation

“I love every day. I mean, I tap dance in here and work with nothing but people I like. There is no job in the world that is more fun than running Berkshire, and I count myself lucky to be where I am." —Warren Buffett

We’ve all longed for and, if we’re very lucky, occasionally inhabited that sublime height of human experience where our work becomes a joy in itself: where we’re fully, happily engrossed in the problems we’re solving, where we love the people we’re solving them with, where there’s no sense of counting on some promised future payoff to justify having spent our time and energy on this work—because the work is truly its own reward.

Most psychologists would describe us as “intrinsically motivated” in this scenario, meaning our desire to engage in the work flows directly from the nature of the work itself. We’re motivated by, for instance, the excitement or curiosity it stimulates, or the immediate sense of competence it provides—rather than by any future reward or consequence …