Ask HN: What motivates you to do what you do?

1. Freedom to use my time wisely. 2. Fulfilment of my potential.

I try to visualize the end days and if I don't do 1 and 2, I will regret it. That is what drives me to do whatever that I do today.

I don't have a fear of change, I have a fear of staying the same. I have a fear that I will be stuck in the same job for the next 40+ years. I don't want that, I don't want to work for someone else, to have all my hard work on their projects do more for them than it has for me. I am hoping to quit my job soon and go off and do my own thing or die trying.

I have to strongly, strongly disagree with this.

First, let's talk about your assertion - we're basically all just in this for the money. If you want to make that claim, you have to be able to answer why. Why is money important? Why would we do anything just for money? Money itself is irrelevant, we only want it because of what we can get with it. So, let's go a step further and figure out what we'll buy with that money. Sure, you're going to buy things for yourself - most people likely will. But are they going to spend it all on themselves? Most likely not. Many people will spend that on gifts for their spouse, a vacation for their family, school for their children, a new house or car to improve the lifestyle of their loved ones. All of these things are honest reasons we justify spending our lives working - to improve not just our own life, but the lives of those we love (and for many great people in the world - the lives of people they've never met).

Second, let's go towards your statement that people just can't have a deep passion for things. You're saying that people can't do something because they're particularly interested in or dedicated to a particular issue? Ok, explain Doctors Without Borders, the Boys & Girls Club of America, St. Jude Children's Hospital, or literally any other charitable organization in the world. Are its founders, low-paid employees (relative to market potential), and unpaid volunteers just in this for the money also?

I'm keeping my cool here on this, because ultimately this is a comment and we're all free to express our minds - but I'm offended by the assertion that we can't care about anything other than money. And that's after you get past the fact that the statement on its face doesn't actually make sense, because none of us care about money - we only care about what we can get with it.

Edit: perhaps a bit of an overreaction to otherwise benign comments on behalf of the OP. I still feel strongly about my comments here, but may have misunderstood the intent of OP's statements.

Doing a good job with care, investing myself in the work. It doesn't matter if no one sees it or appreciates it (though that's nice), it's important that it's done well, with economy of design and good judgement for where to invest some time in the code, and where to flesh out with less finishing.

Higher order goals are all well and good, but usually the best way to achieve those is to make as much money as possible and then direct the money towards the goals, rather than to change what you do and work on the higher order goals directly. While working directly towards higher order goals might feel more satisfying and meaningful, it's unlikely to be the most effective way of making a difference if you've got good skills as an engineer.

My personal higher order goals aren't much more than to live the good life, but being sure to live it - be in the moment, rather than living for some tomorrow.

Grown up working class, have parents which are older and still have to work in awful jobs. Met many people who are just simply better than I am at most things. So I just grind daily at it. I want to have an "out", not just me but for my family and the people I care about.