Maybe intrinsic motivations should be defined as those things (e.g. curiosity, desire for power) that we like just for the sake of them, whereas extrinsic motiv

Maybe intrinsic motivations should be defined as those things (e.g. curiosity, desire for power) that we like just for the sake of them, whereas extrinsic motivations are things we like because they get us to the intrinsic motivations. It's quite possible that most people don't really like money just for the sake of money, and that they just like like stuff that money buys. There's certainly no denying the experimental evidence that monetary rewards seem to dampen interest in activities if you give them and then take them away. The research behind Self-Determination-Theory would also suggest that most people probably share a relatively small subset of the motivations that this guy is talking about. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination_theory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination_theory