A book by Dane Sandy · November 2026
Drive Force
The Physics of Human Motivation
Motivation is not a character trait. It is an equation, and you can debug it.
M
Motivational force output
What you actually feel pushing you toward the act.
E
Expectancy
Your belief that the effort will succeed.
V
Value
How genuinely you want the outcome.
I
Impulsivity
Your sensitivity to whatever is competing right now.
D
Delay
How far away the reward is.
AV
Anti-Value
Fear, pain, and penalty treated as motivational inputs.
For readers who loved Atomic Habitsbut still can’t start.
Habit books tell you what to do; they assume you have already begun. Drive Forcetells you why you haven’t, and which of four measurable variables is broken.
“Later is where good equations go to die.”
Four parts, fourteen chapters
Part I
The Force
Physics, Newton, and dopamine
- 01Motivation Has a Formula
- 02Newton's Laws of Wanting
- 03Dopamine Is a Prediction, Not a Reward
Part II
The Variables
One chapter each
- 04Expectancy: Believing the Effort Will Land
- 05Value: Wanting It on Purpose
- 06Impulsivity: The Cost of Being Interruptible
- 07Delay: Later Is Where Good Equations Go to Die
- 08Anti-Value: Fear as Fuel
Part III
The Application
Diagnose, then ignite
- 09Diagnose: Find the Broken Variable
- 10Ignite: The Smallest Solvable Move
- 11Hold: Keeping Force Above Friction
Part IV
The Operating System
Institutions, societies, civilisations
- 12Institutions Have Equations Too
- 13Societies and the Delay Problem
- 14Civilisations That Solved for Value
About the author
Dane Sandy
I trained as a mechanical engineer and was taught to solve for force. I never practised it; I build software for a living. Then I could not solve for why I would not get out of bed, and every book I read told me what to do without telling me what was broken. So I did what programmers do and went looking for the bug.
Founder of Sandy Intelligence. Regional TechLab Administrator for the Caribbean at the Inter-American Development Bank. As a junior I ran for Trinidad and Tobago, once in the same 200m final as Usain Bolt. He came second. I came fifth.
Out November 2026
One email when it is out. A small group of advance readers gets it early, free, in exchange for nothing more than reading it.