Reaching Better Works

     The article: "What Motivates Us To Do Great Work", written by Jocelyn K. Gley talks about  the fact that the society and  is driven more by knowledge than by money, what motivate the individuals to do a great work is not rewards, recognition, money and stability anymore.Traditional rewards are not enough.The article reveals that what makes people creative to do a great work, is themselves, especially when they have an intrinsic motivation: wich is developed by external stimuls that make people progress toward the goals, and their understanding that they are gaining new skills and knowledge.Also, based on the science writer Jonah Lehrer study about `self-talk`, external stimulations play an important role when we are talking about great works: he analyzed that in some situations people presented a better work result when they previously knew what they were going to do, and spent more time thinking about it. This research could show that the key to reach a better work is made by challenge - external challenges that challenge people and motivate than to think more, work better, and deal with their intrisic motivation. As Jonah Lehrer said: "  By interrogating ourselves, we set up a well-defined challenge that we can master. And it is this desire for personal fulfillment - being able to tell ourselves that we solved the anagrams - that actually motivates us to keep on trying.” Another study made by the author Daniel Pink, reveals there are three key motivators: autonomy, mastery and purpose.Although this article presents many other studies about what motivates people to do a great work, all them had a result point in commom - the progress. The idea of progress and developing is what encourage more people to work more and build creative thoughts. This is the real challenge for them.
 If the idea of progress work with many people when we are talking about motivation to great works, we could think about bonuses and monetary rewards as a measurement of progress. The article assures that some sorts of reward, as bonus money, doesn't estimulate people to do a great work. But the fact is that, some kinds of rewards that we already have spread around the companies and around the world, could motivate the intrisic thoughts, if only the idea of progress were necessary.Based on your performance, and the secure in knowing you improved; there's a link between the pleasure in receiving reward and the satisfaction of knowing you made progress.We already have some examples in our society that work with the idea of progress, and they don't work very often. What, in most cases, ,motivate people to work better, in my opinion, is doing what they like, and wanting to do. When a person like and want, it;s almost impossible for him to don't achieve his goals. It works the same in school. If it was a class on a topic that interested you - you probably did quite well. You probably couldn't wait to get there each day, sat at the front of the class, doing everything you could and you were as engaged as you possible could be. The same is true for job. If you love the environment and culture of where you work- and what you do, then you will be closer to give your best, reach your goals and your employers goals, and, in the end, consequently, you will have the progress.

Consequences of the internet

     The article "Footprints in the Digital Age"  presents some aspects and consequences of the current internet and this new connected world. It also explores the paths this internet system is taking, which the society cannot control how much information is available about them online. Adding to that, the article talks about the role the school plays in student's learning, which is not so strong anymore, once they can learn by themselves online, but still need the teachers to guide and create standards about what they are learning and seeing at the internet.

   Although, the internet's evolution brought some good changes and facilitated the lifestyle of this current society; nowadays it is impossible to control the information and issues about individual's lives that are posted online for everyone to see. Consequently, this 21st century society is loosing its privacy; they are unable to have the right to choose the path their information is going to take online - Just with a name in hands, it is possible to find a big profile about each person. With all these contents and information on their   hands, the students of this generation could learn the same or more than what they learn at school. The point is: some students don't have the mature enough to guide themselves and search for the right resources, which will make them grow as a person, improve their knowledge  and use the internet wisely. A big population of students would take away their attention online to websites that don't really make they work with their brains. These are just some of the consequences of being part of this connected world, which is still changing each day. 

Consumerism X Creativity

The article " Is Consumerism killing our creativity? " written by Jocelyn K. Glei, illustrates how the culture of a consumerist society is affecting the development of people's brains and their creativity today. The consumerist impulse stimulates the same part of the brain that fires when men are going to have a great idea. People have a desire to search, the " wanting, hunting, getting instincts " that are being filled not by ideas, but by shopping. As the article says, the consumerism is being an addictive substitute for the stimulation of creative activity, but they don't provide the same rewards. "Once you get that new thing, you think, you’ll have a superior means to complete your work", but it is not true. Furthermore, the hardship plays an important role when the subject is creativity - adults that grew up with hardship are more flexible, consequently, they are more creative. 

     The most important point that stimulates the society to buy is the world around them: the TV, the neighbors, the media all the time telling people that they will just be fine if they buy more and more. The media controllers know how to work with individual's minds, the visual effects and the right words to say in every advertisement, to stimulate people to buy. Sometimes their techniques are explicit, other times, they deal with our subconscious, and they have the power to make them think that to buy more and more is necessary to have a better life. Therefore, this culture of buying every time and having BIG things, BIG cars, BIG houses, BIG portions of food is spread, and it is hard for a person to stop being consumerist because he would not fit very well in this society where his value depends on what he has. People are filling the `search` space in their minds with the seeking of buying, because it is less work, it is easier than using the brain to be creative. But their results are more important: when a person buy something, in some months this product will not have the same value, and he will have to buy another evolved kind of that product that is new at the market. If the person spends more time using his brain to be creative (creating and thinking about new ideas for whatever in his life), the results are more valuable, and the most important: no one can steal it. No one can steal the knowledge. It is true that an individual in this society usually can just find his identity if he buys certain products; but the media that can control people's thoughts is not the only one blamed: they can interfere in their ideas, but cannot buy for them.