I like this quote: “Once you understand the motivation, reward and punishment structure of any system, you can begin to control it.” - Guido Van Rossum (founder of the Python programming language) I once heard Cesar Millan (the Dog Whisperer) say all dogs like at least 1 of these 3 different rewards: - Toys - Food - Affection Once you know the type of reward a dog responds to best, it makes it much easier to train! Hugsy likes toys, food, and affection: Sid is primarily motivated by food, and is "meh" on the rest: Poe mostly responds to affection: Knowing the reward/punishment structure seems to help in any system! - Training neural networks - Training dogs - Raising kids