The importance of rewards

A reason to reconsider money as the source of creativity (and as a consequence, the importance of highly restrictive intellectual property rights regimes):

Studies Find Reward Often No Motivator – GNU Project – Free Software Foundation (FSF)

There is an old joke that nicely illustrates the principle. An elderly man, harassed by the taunts of neighborhood children, finally devises a scheme. He offered to pay each child a dollar if they would all return Tuesday and yell their insults again. They did so eagerly and received the money, but he told them he could only pay 25 cents on Wednesday. When they returned, insulted him again and collected their quarters, he informed them that Thursday’s rate would be just a penny. “Forget it,” they said – and never taunted him again.

This is from on interesting article on GNU.org about rewards and motivation. According to the article, intrinsic motivators can be far more important than extrinsic motivators (like money, prizes, etc.)