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Ask HN: How do you keep your programming motivation up?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you keep your programming motivation up?

#81

Post by juangacovas »

scarface74 wrote: post #4
mieseratte wrote: post #3

I don't. Turning my hobby into my career killed my hobby and, really, that's fine. It affords me a good life and the ability to discover and enjoy new hobbies. If you're worried about "keeping up," then I would suggest you 1) ignore the rat-race that is framework-of-the-day and 2) focus on learning fundamentals of your domain. Sure, you'll miss out on some hip startup jobs but typical employers don't care about your…

Ignoring the framework of the day and “learning the fundamentals” won’t get you past the either HR filters or make you competitive with developers who are constantly doing Resume Driven Development and have a resume that is buzzword compliant. Especially if you are an older developer (I’m 45) and you will just be seen as just another old out of touch developer. That being said, the further down the stack you go, the…

"the further down the stack you go" is the reason I love English (being Spanish)

Re: Ask HN: How do you keep your programming motivation up?

#82

Post by jlarocco »

Don't stress out over side projects. If you don't feel like working on them, don't. The cliche that good software devs have to sit at desks coding 20 hours a day is silly and unhealthy. Use your free time to do stuff you enjoy. Maybe you'll get inspired to work on the project, or come up with an entirely new one, but there's no point forcing it.

And I'd suggest not taking work so seriously. Don't slack off, but don't over think it, either. Most work (in every field) is crappy and boring, so just do it and get it over with and don't stress out over it.

Re: Ask HN: How do you keep your programming motivation up?

#84

Post by dsego »

One idea is to have more influence on the business decisions, take a more active role in the project. So push back on the crappy parts and bring new ideas to the table. Try to make it your own, be proactive instead of reactive. That might give more weight to the work you do and having more stake is also more thrilling. You could be the next team lead, architect or cto, who knows. And if it doesn't work out, at least you gain some valuable lessons.

Re: Ask HN: How do you keep your programming motivation up?

#86

Post by sdinsn »

simplify wrote: post #72

It might be a health thing. I notice when my health is poor I don't feel like doing anything. But after changing my eating habits and sleeping more[0], I have much more energy and motivation to do things I like. I didn't notice this for a long time; the decline was so gradual I didn't notice until I was constantly tired every day. Still not perfect, but much better than before. [0] Please sleep more, dear reader http…

What specifically did you change in your eating habits?

Re: Ask HN: How do you keep your programming motivation up?

#87

Post by naikrovek »

Learn to not need motivation in order to get work done. This is what my father and his father called "work ethic."

In short, the memory I always think back to went something like this: me whining about digging a ditch, followed by: "I'm paying you to dig a ditch. I don't care if you're motivated about digging the ditch. Dig it, and I'll pay you."

It's the same with anything. If you can't work without motivation then you really aren't doing your job. Everyone has up days and down days, up years and down years. You're paid for all of it, so you should be working for all of the time you're paid to work.

Once you surpass the need to be motivated, you really start to get good at something, in my experience. There's a pride in the finished work, which is completely independent of how much fun you had while doing the work.

I am not saying that motivated people do not produce great work that gives them pride, I am saying that you will be viewed as more reliable, more dependable, more capable, and more professional if you can simply push out those keystrokes even when you don't feel like it.

Re: Ask HN: How do you keep your programming motivation up?

#88

Post by scarface74 »

guntars wrote: post #80
scarface74 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The startups are even worse when it comes to ageism, “culture fit”, and overwork.

As they say, you can find something wrong with everything.

Yeah, but don’t you find it a bigger deal that “what’s wrong” is the bro culture, crazy work ours, and ageism?

Re: Ask HN: How do you keep your programming motivation up?

#90

Post by quickthrower2 »

dsego wrote: post #83
jimmyyaime wrote: post #70

Drink some beer

Unwinding at the end of the day is a great way to boost morale. The trick is to keep it moderate and not overindulge.

Alcohol doesn't really unwind you. And relying on it to help you relax or code is probably not a good idea.

Instead I recommend doing something mildly physical between getting home and coding. Housework, playing with the kids if you have them, dog for a walk, or a mild jog should do the trick. Alternatively having a warm bath works well for me.

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