I am reading "The Upside of Irrationality - the Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home," by Dan Areily.
In one of the chapters ("The Meaning of Labor) he brings up an interesting point about motivation for doing a job and how it is related to the satisfaction that one feels if the work is used and appreciated.
Here is a passage from the book (page 64):
He goes on in a sidebar to discuss the myth of Sisyphus. Here is a short synopsis of the myth from wikipedia.org.
In one of the chapters ("The Meaning of Labor) he brings up an interesting point about motivation for doing a job and how it is related to the satisfaction that one feels if the work is used and appreciated.
Here is a passage from the book (page 64):
"...The lack of an audience for their work made a big difference in their motivation. What is it aside from a paycheck, I wondered, that confers meaning on work? Is it the small satisfaction of focused enagement?...we enjoy feeling challenged by what ever it is we're doing and satisfactorily completing a task (which creates a small level of meaning wih a mallm)? or maybe we feel meaning only when we deal with something bigger. Perhaps we hope that someone else, especially someone else, especially someone important to us, will ascribe value to what we've produced? Maybe we need the illusion that our work might one day matter to many people. That it might be of some value in the big, broad world out there (we might call this Meaning with a large M)? Most likely it is all of these. But fundeamentally, I think that almost any aspect of meaning (even small-m meaning) can be sufficient to drive our behavior. As long as we are doing something that is somewhat connected to our self-image, it can fuel our motivaiton and get us to work much harder."
He goes on in a sidebar to discuss the myth of Sisyphus. Here is a short synopsis of the myth from wikipedia.org.
As a punishment for his trickery, King Sisyphus was made to roll a huge boulder up a steep hill. Before he could reach the top, however, the massive stone would always roll back down, forcing him to begin again.[7] The maddening nature of the punishment was reserved for King Sisyphus due to his hubristic belief that his cleverness surpassed that of Zeus himself. Zeus accordingly displayed his own cleverness by enchanting the boulder into rolling away from King Sisyphus before he reached the top which ended up consigning Sisyphus to an eternity of useless efforts and unending frustration. Thus it came to pass that pointless or interminable activities are sometimes described as Sisyphean. King Sisyphus was a common subject for ancient writers and was depicted by the painter Polygnotus on the walls of the Lesche at Delphi.
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