Dan Ariely: What makes us feel good about our work? | TED Talk – re-post

“And there’s an old story about cake mixes. So when they started cake mixes in the ’40s, they would take this powder and they would put it in a box, and they would ask housewives to basically pour it in, stir some water in it, mix it, put it in the oven, and — voila — you had cake. But it turns out they were very unpopular. People did not want them, and they thought about all kinds of reasons for that. Maybe the taste was not good? No, the taste was great. What they figured out was that there was not enough effort involved. It was so easy that nobody could serve cake to their guests and say, “Here is my cake.” No, it was somebody else’s cake, as if you bought it in the store. It didn’t really feel like your own. So what did they do? They took the eggs and the milk out of the powder. 

Now you had to break the eggs and add them, you had to measure the milk and add it, mixing it. Now it was your cake. Now everything was fine. “

Meaning + effort = happiness & productivity.

Enjoy:

http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_ariely_what_makes_us_feel_good_about_our_work?utm_campaign=social&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_content=talk&utm_term=business

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