Only Intrinsic Motivation Lasts • Hacker News Board

Re: Only Intrinsic Motivation Lasts

#11

Post by lordCarbonFiber » Mon, Dec 14, 2020, 3:01 PM UTC

Supermancho wrote: post #5

jonahbenton wrote: post #2

This is early 2019. Different world. There is so little need for stories of overprivilege right now, even for this audience.

The nunber of narcissists that need this kind of attention - I made money and I gave it all up is reasonable, given the number of software devs in the world, but the visibility of their identically inane stories, amounts to noise. Give me the link to this blogspam along with the success story (of what they ended up doing 5 years later) and it might hold my interest.

Especially since, a year later, the answer seems to be "selling how to build a Twitter following" self help videos. [0]

This is just someone who desperately needs to justify why he retired early (which is a perfectly reasonable thing to do if you've got the cash and wish to live that sort of lifestyle, but there's no need to wrap it all up in some pseudo-psychology about motivation) .

[0] https://danielvassallo.com/#doing

Re: Only Intrinsic Motivation Lasts

#12

Post by throwaway98797 » Mon, Dec 14, 2020, 3:05 PM UTC

Ain’t bad when you can sell self-realization for a profit.

Re: Only Intrinsic Motivation Lasts

#13

Post by Stellvertretend » Mon, Dec 14, 2020, 3:07 PM UTC

Quality presumption effect: 'The use-bounded and utilize-optimized consumer been pulled to that point where they get what they want for expenses they are willing to be priced at' - common sense? (-;

Re: Only Intrinsic Motivation Lasts

#14

Post by swyx » Mon, Dec 14, 2020, 3:26 PM UTC

lkxijlewlf wrote: post #7

>Whenever I got promoted, it felt good for a week, and then it was as over. When I first hit $100K income, I would take a peek at my W2 for a few days admiring the six digits, but then it wore off. When I hit $200K, $300K, $400K, and $500K, it was the same thing. I would be delusional to think that earning $1M, or $10M would suddenly make it different. And I feel the same with every other extrinsic reward or material…

do note that this was written in feb 2019 and only randomly submitted by someone else today

Re: Only Intrinsic Motivation Lasts

#15

Post by lkxijlewlf » Mon, Dec 14, 2020, 3:31 PM UTC

swyx wrote: post #14

lkxijlewlf wrote: post #7

>Whenever I got promoted, it felt good for a week, and then it was as over. When I first hit $100K income, I would take a peek at my W2 for a few days admiring the six digits, but then it wore off. When I hit $200K, $300K, $400K, and $500K, it was the same thing. I would be delusional to think that earning $1M, or $10M would suddenly make it different. And I feel the same with every other extrinsic reward or material…

do note that this was written in feb 2019 and only randomly submitted by someone else today

Excellent point, thank you.

Re: Only Intrinsic Motivation Lasts

#16

Post by P_I_Staker » Mon, Dec 14, 2020, 3:40 PM UTC

swyx wrote: post #14

lkxijlewlf wrote: post #7

>Whenever I got promoted, it felt good for a week, and then it was as over. When I first hit $100K income, I would take a peek at my W2 for a few days admiring the six digits, but then it wore off. When I hit $200K, $300K, $400K, and $500K, it was the same thing. I would be delusional to think that earning $1M, or $10M would suddenly make it different. And I feel the same with every other extrinsic reward or material…

do note that this was written in feb 2019 and only randomly submitted by someone else today

You're correct and this is a good thing to point out. It's still somewhat worth keeping in mind how well most of us do here. $75k is considered fantastic pay to a huge percentage of the population. Almost "can't even figure out what to spend all them money on" levels, if you don't have expensive tastes (and obviously only in areas with reasonable COL)

Re: Only Intrinsic Motivation Lasts

#17

Post by P_I_Staker » Mon, Dec 14, 2020, 3:52 PM UTC

m0llusk wrote: post #8

jonahbenton wrote: post #2

This is early 2019. Different world. There is so little need for stories of overprivilege right now, even for this audience.

True enough, but this is about the meaninglessness of privilege. The author went to where the grass was provably greener. And it ended up being a valueless delusion. So now it is time for something different. This sounds more similar to current stories of desperation than different.

In fairness, it ended with being paid obscene amounts of money. Lost of people consider life a valueless delusion. For most people life is a frustrating grind, and there was never any light at the end of the tunnel. So there never was any delusion of living a meaningful life. Plus they have no money either.

The reality that much of the HN crowd has to come to terms with is that you'll probably never find your passion project. Most people don't, and if they do, it's a fleeting thing that only last a couple years. Otherwise we're here to make money and live as comfortably as possible. That means valuing the right mix of boundaries and compensation.

It's much better to focus on living meaningful lives, our relationships, and make best use of the free time we have.

Re: Only Intrinsic Motivation Lasts

#18

Post by danielpoynter » Mon, Dec 14, 2020, 3:56 PM UTC

Totally relate.

I created web things from age 12 - 30, and I used to check Hacker News throughout the day. Then I saw... another JS framework.

Here's a story I wrote: https://www.appliedideals.com/daniel-poynter

But even that story is a few years old. In early 2019 I dove into climate full time, started a nonprofit last spring. Here's that story: https://www.carbonneutralindiana.org/blog-2020-quarter-3

Intrinsic motivation? Check.

Re: Only Intrinsic Motivation Lasts

#19

Post by nicoburns » Mon, Dec 14, 2020, 3:57 PM UTC

lkxijlewlf wrote: post #7

>Whenever I got promoted, it felt good for a week, and then it was as over. When I first hit $100K income, I would take a peek at my W2 for a few days admiring the six digits, but then it wore off. When I hit $200K, $300K, $400K, and $500K, it was the same thing. I would be delusional to think that earning $1M, or $10M would suddenly make it different. And I feel the same with every other extrinsic reward or material…

Indeed. I think the key not that extrinsic motivation isn't long-lasting, but that excessively large incomes aren't even (or are only weakly) extrinsically motivating for most people. If the job was enabling them to make ends meet vs. not then no doubt they'd continue to be highly motivated.

Re: Only Intrinsic Motivation Lasts

#20

Post by serjester » Mon, Dec 14, 2020, 3:58 PM UTC

I don't understand why everyone is so fixated on his income. If he was an home builder that went from an apprentice to managing entire teams on large projects I think his argument would still apply - past a certain point financial incentives aren't enough.

In the builders case, maybe he'd be writing about getting back to custom, client facing work. I think his essay applies to lots of driven, Type A people that tend to optimize for status - regardless of their field. Personally I find this very relevant.