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It speaks specifically to this, and basically says if you are motivated by external forces, that's how you're wired and you should capitalize on it... it is a waste of time to try get 'internally' motivated. A lot of people are this way, and there is nothing wrong with it.
I liken it to a car that runs on gas... retrofitting it to run on diesel (or electric) is counter-productive... just tune it up so it efficient at burning gas.
It's not a scientific framework, but I think it's a helpful mental model all the same.
I know a guy who spent 2 years in a call center without finishing high school. Today he works as a full stack developer and even complete uni.
He says when he feels lazy, he remembers his life in the call center and the motivation suddenly appears. I have something similar since I work with my Dad doing deliveries and we had to wake up at 4:30 am.
When you get too comfortable, you don't have the need to do better.
It is no surprise that (most) world-class people came from poor backgrounds and had to fight for everything they have today (not excluding other backgrounds). They now how terrible life can be and are not willing to pay the price of laziness, they know it first hand.
TLDR: You need to have been in a really bad spot in your life, to know the true cost of laziness and not taking opportunities.
> "How does one develop and maintain internal motivation?"
> "... Besides "passion" and "enthusiasm" ..."
Perhaps it's an unwarranted bias on my part, but I cringe whenever I hear 'passion' brought up as the answer in this context, for this reason: it seems to me there is a distinction between monkey and user, e.g. the hedonistic monkey that drives us towards the easiest dopamine hits and the user that can override the hollow desires and moves us in a direction of actual fulfillment. The user can be passionate and it won't make a lick of difference if you're still letting the monkey sit in the driver's seat.
Assuming this metaphor makes sense, how does one put the user more in control? In my experience becoming conscience of this push-pull -- daily, hourly -- makes the most difference. Then it is a matter of learning, training yourself, to become responsive to the user. During this process I've found it is important to focus on mentally rewarding yourself for improvements and not fall into continually chastising yourself for 'not doing enough,' etc.
Are you interested in doing a PhD to do a PhD, or are you deeply interested in the subject area and doing a PhD is an avenue to explore it?
That's going to make all the difference. If you're doing it to add something to your resume it'll be a long, difficult and likely unrewarding journey.
>I'm interested in doing a PhD Are you interested in doing a PhD to do a PhD, or are you deeply interested in the subject area and doing a PhD is an avenue to explore it? That's going to make all the difference. If you're doing it to add something to your resume it'll be a long, difficult and likely unrewarding journey.
But eventually I then take steps to get back to moving forward. I'm from the "Stay Hungry" camp of motivation to progress forward.
Plus there's nothing like the clock to remind you that time is wasting. The one thing that none of us can buy more of is time. We can only rent someone else's time and with varied degree of success. But since our lives are finite and the list can be long, there's motivation to continue to check things off that list before time runs out.
Some things that help me:
- right environment. If you want a PhD it's probably good idea to join some kind of research group you will feel good being part of or advisor you get with on very well. For the record I don't have a PhD but both of those things made quite a big difference for me when I was learning stuff throughout high school/university (though this is something I've realized quite late). Judging by how you put more effort when cooking for other, I guess you'd also put more effort when learning with others.
- setting realistic expectations. Sometimes it may be a good idea to lower your standards, for example change "cook healthy meal every day" to "cook healthy meal once a week". I'm a perfectionist so it helps me to say something like "OK, maybe I won't write a great design doc for the new thing my team is working but design something where X and Y work well but Z and T are not working so well". Often it turns out Z and T are not so important or that I can do iterative improvements on them
- getting bored from time to time. Planning to "waste" a day (though it's better to do this not in front of computer).
[1] He wasn't the original author of this observation as far as I recall.