Hello again! Paharia brings us chapter two: Whoever Figures Out Motivation Wins. With the title alone, I believe this chapter title is the key for everything, not just marketing. Living a healthy lifestyle, acquiring money, serving a loved one, etc.; motivation is vital to proactivity. According to the author, it is built on three pillars: desire/necessity, incentive, and expectations. These factors also fall under categories of intrinsic and extrinsic motivators. Autonomy is mentioned as an internal stimulus. As a Christian wanting to have full-control on our own lives is a slippery slope—one surely leading to death. Selfish direction is actually a tactic of the Devil, and it is actually a mindset full of lies. Jeremiah 10:23 contradicts this ideology, “Lord, I know that people’s lives are not their own; it is not for them to direct their steps” (New American Standard Bible, 2020). Rodney Andersen (2023), continues on this thought and writes “If it is true that people are accountable only to themselves, then this opens the door to all kinds of opinions and actions that are contrary to God’s Word…While we do have the ability to make a multitude of decisions each day, do we, as human beings, also have the right to define our own ideas of what it means to exist?” (Andersen, 2023, para. 16). Surrender and dependency on Jesus Christ is the road to a life fulfilled.
Now that we have a basic understanding of the corruption of autonomy, let’s dive into more motivators Paharia mentions. The next are mastery, purpose, progress, and social interaction. The two that resonate closest to me currently are mastery and social interaction. For mastery, the positive and negative forms are having a fixed versus growth mindset. This tension is exactly where I feel I am. The unbalanced individuals “dread any sort of failure because to them it’s a negative reflection of their abilities, which are immutable.” Balanced individuals “believe that their basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work…failure is a crucial part of the learning process” (Paharia, 2013, pg. 31). I am striving and praying to reflect more of the latter mindset.
Transitioning into social interaction; this has been my biggest spiritual reminder for the past year. In summer of 2025, I felt like the Lord put on my heart to pour into people. This has been one of my main focuses for the softball team, as well as, how I function creatively.
Moving in a total different direction, on page 26, the author also mentions two types of tasks:
- Algorithmic – ‘following rules or checklist to complete something… example, checking out at the grocery store’
- Heuristic – ‘no set of rules… only being creative… example, writing a book’ (Paharia, 2013, para. 3-4).
My personality definitely operates in an algorithmic way, at least to set up my day. My room is filled with sticky notes, with to-do lists galore. I hate when my made up, mental schedule gets disrupted. I love planning out homework, projects, etc. for weeks. On the other hand, I truly love having a creative outlet too. My digital notes are filled with podcast videos, voice recordings of lyrics, podcast ideas, and so much more. I think it is good to have a little bit of both types in us. Creativity is God given, but so is order.
Another quip I wanted to jot down is a question that derived from the word algorithm. In Prof. Larsons’ class, his inquiry of the day was ‘if everyone was fed the exact same algorithm, eventually would we all become the same person?’ This sparked an interesting, and complex conversation with the class. We wondered if creativity would die, how that would work internationally, and who is feeding the algorithm? The debate continued, and I’m still not sure which side I am on. If you have any strong opinions, write them in the comments below!
Andersen, R. (2023). Don’t Do “You Do You”: The Lie of Autonomy. The Master’s Seminary. https://blog.tms.edu/dont-do-you-do-you-the-lie-of-autonomy
New American Standard Bible. (2020). Bible Gateway. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%204%3A19&version=NIV (Original work published 1960)
Paharia, R. (2013). Loyalty 3.0: How big data and gamification are revolutionizing customer and
employee engagement. McGraw-Hill Education.
