Sunday, October 24, 2010

Rewards

We reference drinking a lot here at CM. It's a carry-over from RYS. And it certainly depicts my daily routine: commutes, teaching/meetings/office hours, online grading/interacting, research/reading/writing. And at the end of the day: a beer. A delicious, cold beer, sometimes two, and on the weekend (which is no day off, just more research than teaching duties), a sweet Manhattan with cherries and friendly conversation to end my day.

Sometimes, the alcohol does not actually end my day. Some days I have to work until 11 or so. But after 8pm I work with beer at my side. Because it makes it seem like the day is over.

No, I don't think I have a drinking problem. I don't get drunk or even tipsy on 1 or 2 beers. It's just the symbolism. Even if I keep working, cracking open that beer symbolizes the end of my day.

This makes me think of rewards. It seems to me that modern American expectations are built on rewards. Incentives. Success. Maybe this is just capitalism: advertising depicts each consumer good a reward that we deserve because we're so goddamned hard-working. But historically, our ancestors worked a lot harder, real tough 14 hour days without breaks or sodas or ice cream or any of those rewards we give ourselves (if commercials are to be believed) every day. Physical labor. Pain and no reward.

When I let myself try to figure out a snowflake's motivations (always a dangerous path!!), I wonder how much of it might have to do with this sense of rewards. In all forms of media, a reward system is normalized. You deserve that mid-afternoon candy bar. Pain and suffering (for work or obligation) are othered. And when one must suffer through the end of a shift, even if working is a normal thing to do, that suffering deserves a reward. The process of sitting exams deserve rewards. Papers. Work.

It deserves an A.
("I earned it! I worked hard." -- But you didn't get the point of the assignment, Snowy.)

Q1: What rewards do you give yourself and how often? Do you snack throughout the day? Or does your end-of-day ritual involve a reward for all your hard work? Or do you go a nudist colony after each semester ends?

Q2: Do you think there is any correlation between rewarding ourselves for anything and everything and snowflake (or gradflake, profflakes, deanflakes, etc) expectations to "get what I deserve" -- a good grade, tenure, publications, honors, accolades, raises?

10 comments:

  1. That's a really good point. I hadn't thought about that before.

    If this is the case, it's unlikely that we'll be able to convince students that they don't DESERVE an A no matter how hard they work, but is there something else we can give them--a pseudo-reward of some kind that isn't an A but still caters to that sense of entitlement. Much as I hate the very idea of catering to a sense of entitlement, maybe it will make the whiniest ones STFU. Which would be a reward to us for all OUR hard work. ;)

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  2. I spend almost half of each day sleeping and masturbating and eating. That's rewarding and rejuvenating.

    I also like this Barry Schwartz TEDtalk video:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lA-zdh_bQBo
    It says something about rewards and motivation. Not entirely logical, but well worth watching.

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  3. Due to my regular 1 to 2 class overload each term (sometimes by choice, sometimes by necessity), I tend to keep the in-term rewards to a minimum. Much like you Monkey, I'll have an end-of-day drink. Most of my non-grading work is done during semester breaks, so even with this overload, I'm able to stop thinking about work no later than 9PM on any given day. More often than not, it's earlier. Whenever I call it a day, I'll have a couple of beers or a large glass of a nice wine or a double shot of whiskey. After that, I either watch my recorded shows or pick up my current book until bed. After the term, I go to Las Vegas with a couple of buddies from work, without the wives. No, nothing untoward happens, but we're able to celebrate the end of another "successful" term.

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  4. My reward is my head hitting the pillow at the end of every day.

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  5. My reward: Donut Friday. I eat healthy breakfasts every day of the week, but if I've made it to Friday without losing my mind, I stop and get a donut (or two) from Dunkin Donuts for breakfast. Honestly, it's even more needed if I have lost my shit sometime during the week. Its a small treat that I look forward to.

    Oh, and reading CM, of course. I try to save looking at it until my lunch break so I can decompress between classes. And I've taken to reading WhatLadder's blog too.

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  6. A1. I visit my girlfriend, who lives in another state (in the South). We avoid nudist colonies: as she observes, it's never anyone you'd want to see nude, anyway.

    A2. No, of course not. One of the defining characteristics of a snowflake is that strong sense of entitlement. They want to be rewarded, all right, but often for doing nothing at all. When an instructor does insist they do something to deserve an A, what a snowflake considers a "best effort" is often laughable. That's what we get, for raising a generation where every kid gets a trophy.

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  7. I love rewarding myself, and like many of you, I do it daily with a beverage...during the week, it's a late night cup of tea which marks the end of my own work, and the end of the homework battle with my daughter. I might watch South Park, or Family Guy or something like that while I drink my ritual cup of tea and just chill the fuck out....chances are, I wont be able to stay up late enough to watch the Daily Show, but i try. On the weekends, that end of the day reward is a couple generous glasses of wine, Friday and Saturday dinners that aren't so rushed, leisure reading, more cartoons, more wine. I like this routine.

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  8. That's an interesting point. We're beginning to see the same behaviour here in the UK... maybe that's what the government means by wanting HE to learn from the US?

    Sadly, the medication that keeps me moderately stable means I can't drink, and the mood disorder that leads to the medication makes me wary of drinking alone (the cat does not count in this context!). A square or two of really expensive dark chocolate makes a nice evening ritual, and if it's been a particularly bad day I melt the chocolate into milk with honey and spices for a really indulgent evening drink.

    And the end of a large batch of grading, or of a semester, is the signal for an Amazon-binge with no work books allowed - I load up on science fiction, fantasy, manga, detective stories, a comedy romance or two and even some modern and classic literature for the point during the 'break' when my brain is up to it. The arrival of the box of books is the real signal of the end of term, and I allow myself a weekend of 'total immersion mindcandy reading' - bliss!

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  9. There's a huge difference between a reward you give yourself and a reward you expect someone else to give you. If I reward myself with a nap, a drink, or some down time online at mindless sites, I'm responsible for those things. If I demanded a hotel provide me with a bed, a bar with a drink, or an Internet company with access because I've "worked really hard," then I'd be snowflaky.

    Whether the result was good or bad, a reward is a way of establishing an end point and giving me a way to recharge. I think our ancestors did it too; they just had different ways of doing it that weren't quite so luxurious.

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  10. Between Motor City Mitch's misery for today, and Marcia's response to this question... I've decided to be deliberately extra vigilant this week. I'm going to square every corner and cross off every piddly thing on the to-do list and see if I can avoid turning sloth during the post-mid-term doldrums. This is the time of the term when I usually botch something because I have some time on my hands. Instead I'm going to go full throttle until I hit the pillow every night. I LOVE that feeling, but I usually cheap myself out of it by saving a few "to-do" items for the weekend and watching tv instead. The tv isn't anywhere as enjoyable as falling asleep with a clear head.

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