Give all your programmers a ten percent salary cut and get back to me about how many of them were motivated by money.
Top Motivators For Developers (Hint: not money)
41–50 of 94 posts
Re: Top Motivators For Developers (Hint: not money)
#42I 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.
I think the budget part is the largest one -- the extremely low capital necessary compared to almost any other field. Paul Graham has an essay on, I think, things noticed in the startup culture by someone native to a different field -- who observed that you can found Google or Reddit for less than it costs to remodel a kitchen...
Re: Top Motivators For Developers (Hint: not money)
#43Give all your programmers a ten percent salary cut and get back to me about how many of them were motivated by money.
Note that the title states that money isn't a top motivator for developers.
Re: Top Motivators For Developers (Hint: not money)
#44In my recent ploy to get downvoted, I'll sum up my view of this: Fuck you, pay me.
hahaha damnation, I was going to go with - fuck all that, pay me.
Re: Top Motivators For Developers (Hint: not money)
#45As 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.
I think you speak for all of us.
"You don't have to agree with me! You're all individuals!"
"I'm not!"
Re: Top Motivators For Developers (Hint: not money)
#46Give all your programmers a ten percent salary cut and get back to me about how many of them were motivated by money.
It's not the same. This is about, "what brings out the best work/commitment in people?"
What you're actually talking about is presumably a perceived injustice, which might anger people if they felt it was undeserved.
If we're playing poker together, I'm motivated more by fun than trying to actually get your money. That doesn't mean if you take my money by cheating I wouldn't get upset.
Re: Top Motivators For Developers (Hint: not money)
#47Re: Top Motivators For Developers (Hint: not money)
#48In my recent ploy to get downvoted, I'll sum up my view of this: Fuck you, pay me.
If you left off the preamble, you probably would be at -4. People feel bad about downvoting someone after they say "I know I'll probably get downvoted for this, but...". Now we just need a greasemonkey script to prepend the phrase automagically.
Re: Top Motivators For Developers (Hint: not money)
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Unfortunately there is really no way to get these things as an employee, excluding Wall Street (fuck those guys :) ).
The logical conclusion is to start your own company.
Re: Top Motivators For Developers (Hint: not money)
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Mostly, it sounds like you've just had bad experiences in the past, or you live in a place that makes life harder.
I live in the US, make an average salary for a software engineer, and live an incredibly comfortable life. I'm not going to retire at 30 or own a private yacht, but life isn't the dickensian struggle you present.