Ask HN: How do you motivate yourself to keep working on a project?

Maybe that is the issue. You are operating in a world where you think there are answers to things that will make them easier. You need to move away from that thinking entirely. What happens is your brain is not trained to enjoy the challenge of the undesirable things that you will need to do to succeed. There will not always be a trick or a tip and most certainly a big advantage if you can simply figure out the answer all on your own. That will then motivate you in future situations. [1]

[1] Advice, mine, against my advice ironically.

I was going to ask why you 'hate' the payment provider but I can see it's because their SDK is poorly documented. So the truth is more like "I'm frustrated because I can not make steady progress, because I have to stop to find a workaround for yet another edge case". So you can not get into a flow. you're just frustrated.

I suggest you stop coding all together and master that SDK (with all of its shortcomings). Then you'll have a level of competency that will help you move forward. I question that this payment provider is 'the easiest thing' if they are that hard to work with. Are you using Stripe? They are actually very good.

One more thing, this is a bit revealing I think: "I'm questioning if I even want to be in this industry"

Yeah, that's the main problem right there, here's why.

Let's say you needed to figure out this exact payment processor with their shitty Go API in order to impress a hot girl.

Let me tell you something, I have pulled off MIRACLES to impress women. I got us behind the scenes at a Pro Hockey game once to impress a girl. I got us in the captains chair AND the engine room on a cruise ship once to impress a girl.

You are never going to be intrinsically motivated on this project and that's the main problem. By the time you had to motivate yourself enough times to post to HN about it, you are about worn out already.

Life is too short man. STOP. Think about what you would LOVE to do and go do that.

Ask your brain very, very good questions and you will be surprised at how amazing your answers are. Write, rewrite and edit your questions until they are perfect, then ask yourself that question.

Get specific. I'm talking like "How can I have financially rewarding, fulfilling, secure work that I love to do where I make a massive impact, become an expert in my field, feel significant with an impressive title, unlimited growth and enjoy it the whole way with no regrets?"

Ask yourself a specific question like that and I promise you your brain will come up with an answer.

Then, go do that.

If you were doing that, you'd have mastered this problem by now.

If you can't think that globally right now, use this technique to get past this one problem.

Make it a huge ask: "How can I finish this billing integration, have fun the whole time while writing clean, error free, standards compliant code and have it done by the end of January?" Your brain will tell you.

Trust yourself.

Last thing here: If you 'think' you 'might' want to get out of this field, then you already know you should be out.

You can code. Coding in ANY job is a superpower.

Go find something else to love.

It's out there.

So I agree. However, I also think if you have the opportunity to move to a career you love you should do it. Not everyone has that opportunity, sounds like this guy might.