"People want to Be Allowed to be Virtuous"

The first mind-blower, from Barry Schwartz's '09 TED talk, after AIS's latest "soul-searching" (the more precise missions of this weblog as well as the new layout have just been finalized).

Quotes:

"a wise person knows...when and how to make the exception to every rule...when and how to improvise...how to use these moral skills in pursuit (service) of the right aims...to serve, not manipulate the people..."

"...moral skill is chipped away by overreliance on rules...prices are the opportunity to improvise and learn from our improvisation...moral will is undermined by an incessant appeal to incentives that destroy our desire to do the right thing..."

"...(on scripted curricula) scripts like these are insurance policies against disaster, and they prevent disaster, but what they assure is in place is mediocrity"

"...there isn't a formula to tell you how to get the people behind you, because different people in different communities organize their lives in different way..."

John here, same logic, Great Leaders are not about "skills" or formulas...they're about Hearts that really care and reach their people...

"people want to be allowed to be virtuous"


Why Barry's video got 450+ 5-star rating on youtube? Because he spoke our minds out loud (yeah speak our minds & justify our wondering out loud! This is exactly the reason Tom Peters and Seth Godin rock...)! We all(or many of us) know this system sucks and there are other ways that make more sense...yet we're still stuck in this system because...before the message is articulated and shot through the stifling air...before we unite and start a movement...as individuals we often have to take care of our own a** first (and now times are tough,man)...

"People want to Be Allowed to be Virtuous"...my interpretation based on real-life experience: we want to do moral things,sometimes it means sacrificing personal interests for noble reasons, we want to do it and then stand up proud & feel good about ourselves...while in reality (well i said this system sucks),moral choice often means being accused of rule-breaking, or financially punished, or misunderstood as hypocrites...

...and I'd call this "moral incentive"...

All these while I've believed the solutions to our world's challenges are incremental adjustments (through bold experiments) to build up more incentive-compatible mechanisms...I still do...great thanks to Barry's talk that shed light on the importance of Moral Incentives...