home | history | science | funny | thouhts

November 5th, 2010

Divide and Conquer

by Lushfun

Yesterday I read a fairly interesting article ("Misery as Motivation") and in some instance it was said before in a different way all throughout history. Ergo, pick a group or an idea and divide the supporters into layers, then try to show favoritism to a faction that is marginally impacting. It is not so much if you win or looze but how much of an impact you can create, once you are perceived as having an impact you will have even more. In some way it is similar to what was written in "The Prince" by Nicolo Machiaveli, where he gives an example of the Romans asking certain Greek-City-States to not be neutral but to pick a side since if you do not, neither the winner respects you nor the looser and in a certain sense you will be brushed aside post-facto, since you will become irrelevant to both after the outcome. I like how the motivational factors are presented in the psychological sense in the hbr blog, "gratitude factor" is a very specific orientation. It ascribes it externally instead of internally which is in the end what drives people. Yes, there are always external factors, but they fade and their fires generally become dimmer with time. Internal reasons and cohesiveness carries people through in my view.

A very cool perspective of this would be to apply it into the market and see how misery can motivate your niche to drive your success. I am certain negative incentives are of a higher value in market oriented setting than positive ones. The problem is not having them but the perception of them being so, aggitation and affirmation with repeatition and buzzing in my view does not work. Sure you get some customers by sheer volume of attempts through annoyance and general necessity being urgent in your product or service, but that is not the goal. The goal is to be a soft necessary stone in the warm hearth of their heart. If its missing there is a gnawing feeling and when its' there, comfort flows.