The Carrot and The Stick

You’ve probably seen the old carrot on a stick metaphor, perhaps in an illustration or a cartoon, or referred to in conversation. You know, there’s a guy on a horse, and he’s holding a stick with a carrot dangling from the end, on a string. He’s holding it in front of the horse, who, in trying to get the carrot, keeps moving forward. That’s how the rider gets the horse to move forward. You might not know that “Carrot on a stick” is a malapropism. It’s not quite true to the original idiom. There wasn’t just this one apparatus involving a stick, a string, and a carrot. There were two things: a carrot in front, and a stick behind. These related to two separate things, reward and punishment, to motivate a desired behaviour. The carrot is the reward, the thing that draws the horse forward. The stick, I’m sad to say, is a tool of corporeal punishment if the horse stops. Like it or not, we are all motivated by carrots and sticks. We prefer to be driven toward a reward, not running away from punishment, but a even just quick look into things will show that we need both. This is true in all of life, and no less in the creative process. <a href="https://tomfroese.medium.com/the-carrot-and-the-stick-a4c0d46737b0">Click Here</a>