#TIL: Negative Reinforcement

There's a particularly tricky hill start on my drive home. When I was learning to drive it was the bane of my life; I would stall every single time for a good couple of turns of the lights much to the chagrin of the people queued behind me. It was very demoralising and I thought that, once I cracked it, I'd feel a great sense of achievement. But I didn't. The hill start isn't difficult at all now I've been doing it for a few years but I don't feel great about it. It's just something I can do. Why is that? Where's my pride in this achievement? It's not like I never feel a sense of pride in achievement; when I nail a bass riff, take a lovely photo, or write some banger code, I feel great! All warm and fuzzy and proud of my achievement. So why not with nailing this hill start? It turns out it's because of "negative reinforcement". I was under the impression, from parenting books and dog training manuals, that this was about discipline and chastising inadequate behaviour rather than…

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