Top Motivators For Developers (Hint: not money)

Top Motivators For Developers (Hint: not money)
lessonsoffailure.com

Hey guys: it's not anarcho-socialism, it's science!

Word split fail for me. Picking the right domain name is so hard. And yet it seems so obvious once you've integrated it in global word reading zone...

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 best choice for corporations, as likely they will never give the company their best effort.

Sure, in an ideal world, I would only be motivated by doing interesting things. The corporation would take care of the rest of my life (enough money for rent, health insurance, family etc), so that I could focus on my job without another worry in the world.

First flaw: what if I lose my job? Corporations don't pay enough for me to build a safety cushion of money. So I'll have to live in permanent fear of losing my job. Living in permanent fear is neither healthy nor fun.

Second flaw: my idea of being motivated by doing interesting things died pretty soon in my first job, during the dot.com area. That is when they brought in the consultants, a ka people who where paid three times what I was paid, got assigned the interesting tasks, despite often being less skilled. Now my tasks back then weren't that interesting, either, but I am pretty sure the experience would have demotivated me, no matter how cool my tasks would have been.

Doing interesting work can factor into my earnings estimate (ie instead of having to invest two weeks of my private time, I can learn technology X on the job. Fine - so that is maybe worth one quarter of my monthly salary, as a one time payment). So if you offer me interesting things to do, I might consider working for you for slightly less money.