Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Top Motivators For Developers (Hint: not money)

lessonsoffailure.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 94 posts

Re: Top Motivators For Developers (Hint: not money)

#21

Post by jazzdev »

richcollins wrote: post #12

Status probably trumps all three. I'd attribute most of github's popularity to the desire for status.

Yep. Eric Raymond has a good write-up of this phenomenon, which is called a gift culture.

http://catb.org/esr/writings/homesteading/homesteading/ar01s...

the society of open-source hackers is in fact a gift culture... in which the only available measure of competitive success is reputation among one's peers.

But I think that only applies to open source, not to what we do for a living.

Re: Top Motivators For Developers (Hint: not money)

#22

Post by lotharbot »

roel_v wrote: post #16
Tichy wrote: post #7

I might receive an offer for a reasonably interesting job soon, and have been wondering how to justify going "employed". So far my impression is that the bitterest pill for me to swallow would be having no chances. If I come up with a great idea, I won't benefit. I assume here that the usual corporate "bonuses" are not even worth talking about. Salary raises tend to be Therefore I wonder if employees are even the bes…

I don't know what area you're from, but calling (supposedly yearly) salary raises of (just) under 10% to 'hardly make up for inflation' seems like, to put it mildly, a stretch.

Similarly, "Corporations don't pay enough for me to build a safety cushion of money." What sort of spending habits must one have for that statement to be true?

Sounds like the parent commenter is making excuses.

Re: Top Motivators For Developers (Hint: not money)

#23

Post by rapind »

hipsterelitist wrote: post #13

As a developer, I hate being involved in sweeping generalizations about developers. I'd honestly, like those that I work with to understand and recognize me as an individual with tastes and needs that may or may not be like any other member in any other role in a project.

Doesn't scale. I don't mean that negatively. I believe it's representative of the mindset.

As to whether or not your company should be scaling, that's another matter.

Re: Top Motivators For Developers (Hint: not money)

#24

Post by pw0ncakes »

warfangle wrote: post #20
pw0ncakes wrote: post #11

I think developers are motivated by money, but here's the difference: If a developer finds out that the incompetent sitting across from him is making $10k more per year, because of being hired at the right time, he's not likely to care all that much, as long as he's happy with what he makes. It's not taken as a affront, the way it would be among traditional business people. Status in software is measured by access to…

Can you expound upon why government mismanagement of the property market has caused NYC's absurd median rent? Or, at the very least, point me towards an interesting/insightful article on the subject? Thanks!

The problem isn't anything that the local government did, but what it didn't do. There are a lot of steps that could have been taken to lower the rent and property prices. For example, one measure is disallowing anyone to own property in New York that they don't live in at least 6 months plus 1 day. (The same is true of rent control, since a lot of RC people now live out of the city but keep the apartment because it's cheaper than staying at a hotel for 2-3 weeks.)

Finally, the underemployed and parentally funded (trust fund kids) should not be allowed to drive up the rents. (The fact that they ruin the city is an ancillary annoyance.) This can be accomplished by making it illegal to pay more than a certain percentage of one's after-tax salary (say, 40%) in rent.

Re: Top Motivators For Developers (Hint: not money)

#25

Post by wdewind »

warfangle wrote: post #20
pw0ncakes wrote: post #11

I think developers are motivated by money, but here's the difference: If a developer finds out that the incompetent sitting across from him is making $10k more per year, because of being hired at the right time, he's not likely to care all that much, as long as he's happy with what he makes. It's not taken as a affront, the way it would be among traditional business people. Status in software is measured by access to…

Can you expound upon why government mismanagement of the property market has caused NYC's absurd median rent? Or, at the very least, point me towards an interesting/insightful article on the subject? Thanks!

Yeah I'd be interested too (New Yorker).

Re: Top Motivators For Developers (Hint: not money)

#26

Post by mapleoin »

rapind wrote: post #23
hipsterelitist wrote: post #13

As a developer, I hate being involved in sweeping generalizations about developers. I'd honestly, like those that I work with to understand and recognize me as an individual with tastes and needs that may or may not be like any other member in any other role in a project.

Doesn't scale. I don't mean that negatively. I believe it's representative of the mindset. As to whether or not your company should be scaling, that's another matter.

I see this as something that must be solved at the my-immediately-superior manager level. And when one of these managers has at most 10 people immediately underneath. I think that should scale.

Re: Top Motivators For Developers (Hint: not money)

#27

Post by mapleoin »

roel_v wrote: post #16
Tichy wrote: post #7

I might receive an offer for a reasonably interesting job soon, and have been wondering how to justify going "employed". So far my impression is that the bitterest pill for me to swallow would be having no chances. If I come up with a great idea, I won't benefit. I assume here that the usual corporate "bonuses" are not even worth talking about. Salary raises tend to be Therefore I wonder if employees are even the bes…

I don't know what area you're from, but calling (supposedly yearly) salary raises of (just) under 10% to 'hardly make up for inflation' seems like, to put it mildly, a stretch.

Yeah, using € means he's in the European Union. In one of the countries that's using Euros. Eurostat estimates inflation at 1.5% in the Euro area.

Re: Top Motivators For Developers (Hint: not money)

#28

Post by rapind »

mapleoin wrote: post #26
rapind wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't scale. I don't mean that negatively. I believe it's representative of the mindset. As to whether or not your company should be scaling, that's another matter.

I see this as something that must be solved at the my-immediately-superior manager level. And when one of these managers has at most 10 people immediately underneath. I think that should scale.

Theoretically sound. Manager's that get this probably don't come cheap.

Re: Top Motivators For Developers (Hint: not money)

#29

Post by Tichy »

lotharbot wrote: post #22
roel_v wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know what area you're from, but calling (supposedly yearly) salary raises of (just) under 10% to 'hardly make up for inflation' seems like, to put it mildly, a stretch.

Similarly, "Corporations don't pay enough for me to build a safety cushion of money." What sort of spending habits must one have for that statement to be true? Sounds like the parent commenter is making excuses.

Suppose I need about 2000€ per month - my rent is 500€ and my health insurance is 700€ (unfortunately). Also there might be family to support.

So to survive for a year, I would need 24K of savings. It takes several years to build that up with a normal salary.

To pay for a house or flat, most people work 30 years where I live. And that is with 50K they pay in cash in the beginning - which I don't have, as I don't have rich parents. It takes several years to save 50K with a normal salary. I haven't worked as an employee for a while, but there are taxes to be paid, social insurance, pension plans and what not (mandatory where I live). I think with 60K, maybe As a freelancer, I was up to 80K savings in about 3 years (sadly, since then severely reduced, but still).

Yes, you can live comfortably as an employee - as long as you don't lose your job for 40 years.

Re: Top Motivators For Developers (Hint: not money)

#30

Post by compay »

cageface wrote: post #17

I was actually trained in chemistry but I left the field and got into software development for two reasons: 1. By and large, it's a meritocracy. Your degree matters a lot less than the quality of your code. 2. Two people in a garage can still make an impact. Most other technical fields require large teams and big budgets to explore. A single good developer can make a huge impact and seeing my work make a big differen…

I couldn't agree more. I left linguistics 10 years ago for the same reasons you described and never once looked back.
Post reply on HN