Re:On the Folly of Rewarding A, While Hoping for B (1975) [pdf]
by impendia on Thursday June 18, 2020 @03:11PM
(#23566576)
I am a bit confused; what is your criticism?
My only real point is that my job performance is mostly independent from what my superiors incentivize or hope to see.
Imagining myself as a soldier in WWII, I would like to think that I would have been motivated less by whatever my commanders incentivized, and more by the prospect of beating Hitler. Whereas, in Vietnam, I can't see any motivating large-scale goal or purpose. I think that Art Hoppe summed up the prevailing sentiment in his 1971 newspaper column: "I don't give a damn anymore who wins the day."
That said, hindsight is 20-20, and my argument is totally hypothetical: I have never been in any situation even remotely similar to war.
My only real point is that my job performance is mostly independent from what my superiors incentivize or hope to see.
Imagining myself as a soldier in WWII, I would like to think that I would have been motivated less by whatever my commanders incentivized, and more by the prospect of beating Hitler. Whereas, in Vietnam, I can't see any motivating large-scale goal or purpose. I think that Art Hoppe summed up the prevailing sentiment in his 1971 newspaper column: "I don't give a damn anymore who wins the day."
That said, hindsight is 20-20, and my argument is totally hypothetical: I have never been in any situation even remotely similar to war.