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Eyal: All human motivation is driven solely by escaping discomfort

Nir Eyal · #127 Best of 2021: Conversations of the Year · Dec 21, 2021 · at 1:01:07

Author Nir Eyal challenges traditional pleasure-pain motivation theories while speaking with Shane Parrish.

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“Human motivation is not about carrots and sticks. It's not about pain and pleasure, but rather it's just about one thing. All human behavior is spurred by the desire to escape discomfort. Everything we do for just one reason, the desire to escape discomfort, even the pursuit of pleasurable sensations.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

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