Our market-based economy is built on the foundational assumption that behavior can be significantly influenced by extrinsic – external – factors. These external factors – money, rewards, positive feedback, impressing others, etc – have proven to change our decisions from what we may do intrinsically. The external motivators that create the “market” motivate us to do what’s best for others…by aligning it with what’s best for ourselves. 

This may not be such a bad thing. Human nature may make it too tempting to wallow our lives away without external incentives. But it’s taken me years of therapy to rediscover how to even sense my intrinsic – internal – motivations. In fact, a fully realized market economy requires that we ignore or infinately obscure our intrinsic motivations. A fully realized market economy, by definition, means complete “optimization” of human behavior. It means blindly supplying what others demand without regard for our own desires, morals, or feelings.

Internet software radically accelerates our progress towards this future. All the biggest Internet services are simply unemotionally optimized marketplaces: Amazon for products, Uber for transportation, Facebook for communication, YouTube and Netflix for entertainment, Google for information, etc. 

Yet I still believe we can find our intrinsic purposes. It takes more intention, more effort, and more will than ever – but it is perhaps the most important ingredient I’ve found for fulfillment, for peace, for satisfaction, for happiness. There have been many attempts to find the “market value” of intrinsic purpose. But as soon as it has a market value, it’s no longer intrinsic. By calculating and triangulating a “purpose” that will be most appealing to the widest audience, it no longer comes from inside ourselves.

Ironically, acquiring a good bit of the most common extrinsic motivator – money – has given me the privilege (time and freedom) to investigate my own intrinsic motivations. But it’s also caused me to need to.