De Motivation

The office I work in has a really motley collection of “art.” There are some nice Ansel Adams prints, some prints of historical Chicagoan scenes, some gigantic pictures of horses, and random framed maps. I have no idea who chose them all, but it’s generally pretty dismal.

And, of course, there are the dreaded Motivational Posters. I HATE THOSE! They make me homicidal. There’s just nothing worse that having a frustrating day and looking up and seeing a big poster of zebras with the legend “Cooperation—Coming Together is a Beginning. Keeping Together is Progress. Working Together is Success.” Cooperation is making sure lions only kill the sick or feeble.
I do not feel inspired by looking at overly saturated photos of sky divers without context and a pithy little saying. Couldn’t we have a little more intellectual inspiration? Fractals to remind us of the amazing unending and coincidentally beautiful patterns of the world around us? A print of Frederick Douglas to show that greatness can come from anywhere? Those professional sand castles to prove it’s worth creating something fantastic even it only survives a day?
Of course, if we strove for greatness we’d probably not be able to handle our day to day dullnesses. Maybe bland and inoffensive is the way to go in the modern office, although no one would dare use “We strive for pretty goodness!” in their corporate literature.
As a result of my outbursts, one of my colleagues printed out some Demotivational posters available from despair.com
I have a lovely one of “Motivation—If a Pretty Poster and a Cute Saying Are All It Takes to Motivate You, You Probably Have a Very Easy Job. The Kind Robots Will Be Doing Soon” and my absolute favorite “Worth—Just Because You’re Necessary Doesn’t Mean You’re Important.”
Oddly, they cheer me up.
I guess I find cleverness, honesty, and irony to be very motivational.