Carrot and Stick

April 10

It’s easy to assume that, given the choice between the carrot and stick, we all overwhelmingly choose the carrot.

But even reading that single sentence, half of us—or more—had a gut reaction. We’re built different. Stronger. Not afraid to dish and receive some tough love. Not like this new generation, built on too many carrots, the participation trophies, scoreless games, and other stick-less nonsense that is, in all likelihood, ruining humanity as we know it.

It’s probably wrong to assume we even choose one of the other in every domain of our lives—we may be seasoned pros who choose the stick in our work, while we dish out carrots left and right in, say, our artistic pursuit or workout.

But the question of the carrot or the stick isn’t precisely right. We clearly seem to need both at different times in different domains. Maybe it’s more a question of the size of the carrot and the size of the stick?

Do you want to reward yourself so much that you undo the work that got you there?

Do you really want to hang an ax over your head just to get ordinary work done?

Carrot, stick, each in their place, each the appropriate size.

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