No Reward

In this article on Joel on Software, Joel Spolsky quotes Alfie Kohn from the Harvard Business Review.

... at least two dozen studies over the last three decades have conclusively shown that people who expect to receive a reward for completing a task or for doing that task successfully simply do not perform as well as those who expect no reward at all.

This reminded me of what is written in Pirkei Avos.

[Antignos of Socho] used to say, do not be as servants who serve the Master to receive reward. Rather, be as servants who serve the Master not to receive reward.

Interesting.