Today, I'm beginning a series of posts on work, fulfillment, and compensation. I've been thinking of these quite a bit lately and have some thoughts and questions to share. To get us started, I'd like to refer you to a video clip from the documentary, "Hackers Wanted." If you have some time, the entire documentary is thought provoking. Check it out and see what you think. There'll be more to come from me soon.
At any rate, theYouTube video clip is entitled, "desmond morris @ monkey painting experiment" and is narrated by Kevin Spacey. Here's the transcript for the clip:
In 1962, Desmond Morris published his book, The Biology of Art, which details his experiments teaching chimpanzees to paint. The chimps enjoyed painting immensely, and eagerly created works of energetic colors and strokes. One phase of Morris' experiment involved rewarding the chimps for producing their paintings. Whenever a chimpanzee painted, he received a peanut. Surprisingly, very soon the quality of paintings began to degenerate until the chimps produced the bare minimum that would satisfy the experimenter. Any joy found in the act of painting was lost as the chimps uncaringly slapped paint on their canvases and ran to collect their peanuts.
