Ask HN: How do you keep your programming motivation up?

In my case it is the opposite, programming has helped improve my overall morale.

I was running a startup, during first few years my programming contribution to our products were very high as I had inexperienced developers. But once they gained experience, my contribution to actual coding got diminished and was limited to architecture and major troubleshooting. That was compromise I had to make as a single founder and executive of the startup.

But in 2018, I had severe health problems and had to undergo life-threatening surgery which has permanently restricted my neck movements severely and had to close my startup.

While I was bed ridden during recovery, I wondered whether I could even get back to computer usage if not programming. Now a year since surgery, I have adapted to restrictions in the neck movement, changed computer display setups to aid it and started programming few months back although my primary profession now is coaching startups.

I recently released the project which I was building past few months[1], which was inline with what I do professionally and being able to build and launch the project after months of uncertainty over whether I will be able to use the computer again has had a positive effect on my morale.

[1]: needgap - 'Submit problems for startups to solve' - https://needgap.com

I generally agree with you. But, I think we also need to constantly evaluate our view about the current way we do things. For example, in 2012-2013 time frame, I was involved in a project dealing with an insane amount of data. I studied Hadoop in the spare time and applied what I learned at work. I felt grateful that it helped with the scale and performance tremendously. Fast forward to 2016, I was just starting to learn more about Spark (even though it was available for a while by then) to replace the slow execution model of Hadoop MapRed for our iterative model. Again, applying what I learned to the project helped us to cut the R & D time a lot. Plus, for most of the folks who start with Spark, they don't have the first hand experience of the original MR idea implemented in Hadoop. It is a pain and slow to use Hadoop MR model but nevertheless it makes you feel more appreciated with things like Spark/Flink.

To sum it up: you don't need to constantly chase after the greatest & latest framework. But, you need to constantly review new inventions/technologies to help you improve the way you currently do things. I am grateful for still having the passion to improve things around me!

Programming is the single thing I'm capable of that has allowed me to provide an upper middle class lifestyle for my family. I will keep doing it for as long as it serves the function. I don't require any other motivation.

Focus on your impact, the 'true' value you're providing the world.

This is difficult considering what most SE's work entails (i.e. advertising, addictive feedback loop design etc.).

Choose your work with strong philosophical underpinning. Else you'll end up in existential crisis.

I'd recommend companies that have a comfortable environment and that are not overly profit focussed but also do something that you consider useful. I'd definitely also consider going with something that might not offer the highest salary/chances of getting rich.

Chances are that the technology you use might also be useful for side projects. Also not working in a high pressure environment might enable you to work on interesting things and leave some space for creativity at home.

The times I felt the most burned out at work where actually also those where I took the job most seriously. That's very much the experience I have now from working over 10 years at various companies. Hope this helps ;)