Losing motivation - FunFunFunction #25
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- Опубліковано 27 бер 2016
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I talk about how external motivation can mess up your inner motivation.
Daniel Pink
• The puzzle of motivati...
www.danpink.com/
Motivation Crowding Theory
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivati...
Overjustification Effect
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overjus...
Cognitive Evaluation Theory
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cogniti...
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Feynman dealt with this problem in this way:
“You have no responsibility to live up to what other people think you ought to accomplish. I have no responsibility to be like they expect me to be. It’s their mistake, not my failing.”
After this realization, he recovered his inner motivation:
“Now that I am burned out and I’ll never accomplish anything, I’ve got this nice position at the university teaching classes which I rather enjoy, and just like I read the Arabian Nights for pleasure, I’m going to play with physics, whenever I want to, without worrying about any importance whatsoever.”
Shortly after playing with physics again, Feynman made a discovery working out equations of wobbles on a rotating disk. This discovery led to his Nobel Prize.
I was just think about that! The fix is to just blame the other person for paying you, it's their mistake! Then your free to just have fun cause you aren't doing anything wrong.
As a software engineer who has once upon a time worked in the gaming industry, there were several times I got fatigued on framework jumping between projects and just burned out all together. I want you to know that your videos, even though covering concepts I understand for the most part, have reminded me WHY I fell in love with the practice in the first place.
I have subscribed and will continue following your youtube journey, friend! Nothing short of inspirational, and it's very rare I come from one of these videos with anything but that itch to create something in my favorite "logical art form".
For me, at least, being able to frame my "work" as a tapestry ripe for painting upon, can sometimes override the idea of it being work at all.
+Frosthaven that's a great bloody read, frost haven! Thanks for making my morning!
@funfunfunction, wow what a terrific video. I have a terrible secret to admit. As long as I'm studying, I am forever motivated by challenges. Anything that involves money turns me off. I don't know why this happens, but this probably explains why I can't seem to hold a decent job.
Perhaps monotony that bores me, but autonomy also as well. This in turn makes me become a lifelong learner who needs to find things just outside my reach to continue to strive.
I remember one time someone paid me 40 dollars to simply run an anti-virus program and I never felt so guilty in my life. I offered for free and that made me feel significantly better. Call it abnormal and I should be discussing this with my physician, but I suppose you can call it the today's hippie culture, or plain stupidity for that matter.
To date I now know PHP, CSS, HTML, mySQL, perl, Lua, batch script, Javascript, and a little C++. My end goal eventually is to master C and C++ as I consider the holy grail of programming, but then what? I don't know, sometimes I feel like my own worst enemy because I can only go so far before burning out. And being mentally exhausted is the worst feeling in the world~
Most people make the mistake of relying on willpower to get things done. Don't do this. Instead, focus on building good habits. Better to be consistent than to be motivated.
+falqas i appreciate the possible necessity of this in life, but this statement is saddening, its ignoring the importance of passion - which will also cause it to be obscured!
+Vicky Kelbie Passion is a great motivator, but as with any emotion it naturally ebbs and flows.
In this video, our friend Mattias demonstrates this point perfectly; he's a passionate guy by anyone's measure, and yet passion alone is not enough to get him through some of his challenges.
So while it's surely important to have passion, you also need the power of good habits to get you through some of the inevitable down times. Thank you for your comment.
+falqas I think willpower and good habits can live together.
I think that deciding to build and persevere in creating good habits while getting rid of bad ones is not the contrary of willpower. It requires the same amount if not more, so it is just a better (more efficient and sustainable) use of the willpower. I see this as using solar energy versus using fossile one. It takes more time to put in place, but in the end one can build things upon this that will not end up to collapse.
I would add to this: create a story/narrative, a kind of philosophy about what you do, why you do it, why is relevant for you to do it, how does that fit in a larger scheme, that has helped me a lot, which is exactly what you say except that in this case are mental habits that complement the external habits.
I'm a software developer with 30 years of diverse experience and I really like your reflections about motivation and control (or lack of it). To answer your question about the conflict between external drivers and loss of control, I would like to offer how I myself deal with this: I make the situation my own. Either in practice or in a mental state. So when I feel controlled I usually deal with it by redefining the problem or the solution that is put on my from the outside, that is, I come up with a twist that gives me what I need to keep that control, but not too much to piss off then ones confining me.
Or I gain control in an area where I can do so, by i.e. creating a separate challenge where I define the rules. All this works well in programming or even in boring tasks like working hard stupid labor where I try to optimize or learn. You can always learn: learn to accept a stupid assignment, learn to improve it, learn social skills to gain control. Same goes for programming tasks or creative work. It's all about the balance of control between yourself and the external force.
I think this can even be extended to the conflict between me and myself in situations where I started motivated but end up feeling forced by my own commitment and when that conflicts with that other part in me that wants to go and do something new, I can feel the same internal/external problem come up again, but this time inside my own head. Same solution here too, you need to balance things and create new areas of control and that's where most self-help books place themselves.
To me all this manifests itself in the way I live my life determined to do my best and to learn and grow in every possible situation. It makes me search myself to any challenge worth taking instead of avoiding them. And that maybe is the ultimate conflict between internal search of control and the external non-controllable world, my own purpose of life and in the end the limited time I have.
+Andreas Pardeike wow, that's some fantastic and meaty advice. Making it your own is a really good guideline. Its similar to what my brother who is an artist proposed; define what the external parameters are, and just push to achieve the bare minimum, and after that the task is yours, and you no longer need to do more for anyone but yourself.
+Andreas Pardeike Amazing! Tell us more! is there any book which develop this subject or did you come up with this way of dealing with the problem alone ? I felt like you were in my head :)
Today on FunFunFunction: _Mattias shows us the best to break into an installation that houses dangerous explosives - a quarry!_ I can only imagine the confused looks on the face of the crew captain when they look through the triggered events on the CCTV :)
As for the laboratory - would it be a china clay quarry by any chance? I ask because it comes in many grades and the best way to examine samples is with an electron microscope.
Back to the subject of the video - I think the single biggest issue for me is the autonomy part. I've always loved programming ever since I started teaching myself as a child, but doing it as a profession can turn your passion into your master. As a child I could write anything I wanted, now I have to write what I'm required to write and my personal projects get pushed to the side. My best solution has been to whack on the earphones and code to music. I can go for hours and make real progress with a project. Unfortunately that means I might be coding for 12 hours straight and still don't get around to my personal projects!
Maybe we should treat programming the way people treat fitness and get a personal trainer? Perhaps a mobile app voiced by someone we know, say ... oh I don't know ... a guy called MPJ, who could tell us when to start, stop, grab a drink or do a spot of recreation ;)
+2thinkcritically haha, like a guided meditation app, but for programming? What a peculiar idea. :)
"Now sit down... relax... start thinking about the new feature and... write a unit test for it. No! Don't mute me! WRITE THE UNIT TEST! NOW! WRITE EEEEEET!"
This is a very good topic. I wrestle with this feeling a lot. It's good to know there is some psychology behind it and it happens for a reason. Sometimes being extrisicly motivated isn't bad. Knowing what motivates you and making the decision that you are going to follow through on that motivation is what puts you in control. If you can frame the project in a way that gives you control of it then perhaps you can stave off the loss of motivation. For example in today's video if you had said to yourself, "I WANT to grow my channel and get more views." Instead of, "This video will be what other people want and that could grow my channel." Then the video isn't about what other people are asking you for. It becomes about what you want for yourself and your channel. But if you really don't care that much about growing your channel then decide to do another topic that gives you motivation. Either way you made that decision and you put yourself in control. Keep up the good work! And thanks for taking your time to do this.
Rephrasing is very powerful! It is the at root of firing different neural pathways! I like your comment here.
For the past 40 days I've spent the first few minutes at my desk writing down a few things I'm grateful for, a few things I want to get done that day, and the longer-term goal that the work I'm doing is helping me achieve. I can't explain it, but it does seem to generate motivation--even when I'm feeling unmotivated. It reminds me that the paycheck is not my only reward for this work, and that each day builds upon the last.
This episode was perfect timing...you're under the gun to finish a project before the quarter ends (arbitrary milestone) & all you really want to do is anything but the project you're getting paid to do. Thanks for sharing.
4:02 How I feel when I accidentally toggle on cap locks in VIM
+Johnny Ji LPT: remap Caps Lock to CTRL. You can thank me later.
+Tom Lingham try remapping Caps Lock to Esc. *mind blown*
+heller.barde OR: remap caps lock to control, and teach yourself to use ctrl+c instead of esc, adding `nmap ` and `imap ` to .vimrc. Mind blown x2.
+Tom Lingham and now I can't right click :(
Haha I laughed way too hard at this
Motivation comes and goes, like emotions you have to put them to one side. If motivation is a problem remember where you came from and where you are going and if it seems to much break it down in to smaller bites.
I've only discovered you about two days ago and honestly been binge watching all your videos :D LOVE E'M THANKS
I like the your videos! I'm just beginning to code at age 54 so sometimes I become very self-conscious about whether I can pull this off! I'm starting a degree course in September and hope I can stay motivated! So, right now when I lose motivation I change what I'm doing.
If i'm working on an online course and I start getting stuck and can't figure out the coding.. I got to youtube and watch an instructional video or I just do general research on the language that I'm learning....If none of this works, I go for a walk like you did.
Thanks again for your videos very motivational!
+Greg Young hey Greg! That feeling of getting stuck is normal and perpetual and doesn't go away, just get used to it and learn to lean into it, and you'll be fine. 54 is a great age to start programming, we current have to large of a group starting at a young age and its skewing the perspective of the community too much in one direction. Welcome to programming, I'm glad to have you here.
Thanks Bro! Onward!
amazing, im 30 and i thought im to old, you are inspiration Greg, keep it up.
Greg, we are all rooting for you! Don't lose your motivation!!
One really good quote I got and tries to go by,
"If you need it, get rid of it."
Hope that helps.
I dont have a good strategy but what helps is keeping my life goals in mind and always working towards them. If you are one step closer today than you were yesterday then your doing good.
Great stuff. I related very much with this video. It's not just you at all. I'd not thought about this phenomena in these terms before, now I have a new mental model to play with. You've inspired me to go research more on these topics. Thanks a lot.
+Tim Oxley that so good to hear!
Burn out is part of the trade! Embrace it. It may be a sign that you need a change. I've been programing for over 25 years and have burned out a few times. One of my burn outs I ended up living on Miami Beach for a year...good times.
When I lost motivation either from dull task or just bad boss, I gathered the motivation from the end users joy or their ability to do better by my workings.
I heard someone say "There's nothing to prove." So whenever I want to do something, I just repeat that and do the thing for the sake of doing it, not for the social interest it might get.
Keep rocking mpj! I love your videos.
I love everything about this video: the topic itself (very much relatable), the research on it ( learned new terms), and the fact that you decided to make this video - motivated by the lack of motivation on another video, just a clever way to break your own 'writer's block' and get back on track again.
Thank you for making programming videos fun and engaging!
You aren't alone, Mattias. I've experienced this a lot. Even more often now that I blog.
Sometimes I do what you did with this video. I start with writing about a topic, it feels like homework, and ditch it. Then write my current struggle instead...safer than visiting a quarry :)
If you can create a sense of play in your task then you can trick your mind into staying motivated
Great video. I think the best videos are those where you are having fun or sharing how you genuinely feel about a topic.
I also struggle with motivation and it was great to hear that a seasoned programmer like you has this same feeling. Thanks for being open and honest.
I LAUGHED sooooo much!
We all have had these moment, but the difference is, I never did research about it, nor did a bunch of it and put the links together.
Feelings come and go. Your videos are much appreciated, so does your personalities. I never learnt these much about Functional Programming until your videos.
You are not alone, I have been dealing with that for 10+ years.
I'm in the process of building a game that I personally would really love to play and I am asked constantly "How will it make money?".
When I start thinking about how to make this game make money I essentially lose all motivation to build it! However I'd love for it to pay me back for the $$$ artists I hired.
I've promised myself to simply not think about the things outside of myself and just focus on "justifying the game for myself". Seems to work so far!
A nice change of tone from the usual ones I watch of yours! Thanks!
Good job mate. It's always a pleasure to watch your videos. Do only what you really want to do
I found my lack of motivation comes from my motivation burnout. I feel that having motivation sets you up for lack of motivation, so I try not to get motivated or excited about things. Doing so, I find people expect less from you and appreciate your work more for some reason.
I've been seeing this topic come up more recently in my life than ever, thanks for making this video.
I love this video and your channel! Great insights.
I've been professionally programming in one form or another since graduating from college in 1980 (I'll be 60 next June) - and I'd always loved sharing what what I'd learned right up until the point where employers started encouraging me to "post more often"... archive.li/RVZ5f
What's really helped me regain my motivation is people like you. Thank you most sincerely.
+John Reynolds hah, very poignant that quote - "post more often" indeed. ;)
You are intelligent enthusiastic and entertaining. It is fun to watch your videos. Everything you speak resonates with the real programmer.
I have recently been mediating a lot on external and internal reward. I think that, in general, society encourages us in a lot of ways to focus on external reward, which can cause our internal motivations to get lost in the mix. I feel this is what causes us to do things we don't enjoy doing and then we lose our motivation. However, I didn't think to look at the mechanisms behind this phenomenon, as you describe. Really fascinating and something I'm going to explore because this would be one heck of a contribution to wellbeing and productivity if you had the tools to cope with this. Your ability to eloquently piece together complex topics with your camera while out on Sunday walks never ceases to amaze me! Thanks so much! :)
This is why "make them think it was their idea" is such a popular motivational tool/trick.
And also why Socrates was so good at getting people to change their views.
After seeing this I thought about it and it seems to me that, when you think of an awesome thing to do/create, a big part of the motivation is the promise of knowing that the awespme thing wouldn't be there if it wasn't for you.
If someone else pays you to create this and that thing made out of awesomeness like such and so, you get to create it, but you don't get to be the reason for its existence.
Never thought about it like that, thank you!
I think being in control, or controlling your environment is what makes people generally happy or at least satisfied...good points made, great job mpj :)
I can't tell you how applicable this is to me right now. I have a deadline, working with a framework I do not care for implementing someone else's idea/work into an existing project with tightly defined (This is what we want you to do, and how we want you to do it). The only thing I want to do right now is work on my resume.
I wish I had the answer to overcome this lack of motivation, but your video was able to point out why I feel this way. As always I am grateful for sharing of knowledge
Hello! I know I may be a little late to the party here but I have found that when I lose motivation due to a lack of feeling that I am in control, I re-frame it. What I mean by that is I study my own original motivations then re-consider why I am still going to do this task. An example would be that when you are about to do something nice and unexpected for your partner then they ask you to do it. That has always driven me nuts and I immediately lose my motivation to do it. So I re-frame it and REMEMBER that I was going to do it in the first place without being asked. This gives me another opportunity to regain control by giving more "product" if you will. I can now do the thing they asked because now it is important to them. Not only was I going to do it in the first place now I can STILL do what I wanted with an added bonus of giving them what they want with no questions asked. So now I am doing two things of my own free will. Hope that gives some insight!
awesome. very simple yet very effective.
I am dealing with a lack of motivation in dealing with cross browser compatibility. I appreciate the video.
This got me through my day today. Thanks MPJ. Keep up the good work.
yes, I remind myself that I could be doing something that I completely dislike for money instead of doing the very thing I enjoy, so that keep me going. At one point I did landscaping for money. To me landscaping was a complete nightmare. However, we all have to make money, and I rather be coding JavaScript (one of my least favorite language) than not coding at all for money. So, making something for money is better for me than doing other things for money. It increases my skill level, diversifies my skills and give my a sense of accomplishment.
Over the years I have evolved from being actively engaged with the big picture at work to living in an isolated corner of our lab and doing point projects that are needed by various teams. The more visible I am the less comfortable I feel because of the pressure to perform even though i am capable. I'm much happier this way. This kind of goes along with what you are talking about.
And by the way if you come to the USA don't walk around a quarry or factory like that, you will get shot by the security guards and put in one of the grinding machines.
Currently post-sprint and looking for my motivation again. This is a great video, thank you.
Oh God, this was such a good video. Really reminded me of why I like programming and why I need to work hard in college.
+Hamza Masood glad you liked it!!
Riktigt bra kanal!
I completely relate to your sentiment. I'm at a loss for better skills to manage the juggling of motivation pillars but I think this is an issue often overlooked that deserves more consideration. Good vid
I can relate to this.
The tooling to manage this has in my experience has been finding a greater purpose; be it fatherhood, saving lives or standing up for the weak, hopeless or oppressed.
Having a greater purpose is a tool that allows me to push through and periods of demotivation.
I recommend you find something that really annoys you about the world, something that itches at your sense of injustice and dedicate your efforts to overcoming it. I'm not talking about joining the peace corps or selling everything you have and giving it to the poor (although these will be appropriate for some people), indeed you could write code to overcome the injustice that has got under your skin, or just to pay the bills while you spend the rest of your time being motivated by your greater purpose.
Just my opinion.
I hope you still reads these comments. First of all great channel! Now to the whole intrinsic vs external motivation discussion. One way to deal with it is a matter of perspective. Not saying it's just changing your perspective from one day to the next, but gradually making some thought habits, you like. So in your case, I guess you want to make videos people like and you like making. Most often, if you like making them people will like watching them. So picking subjects that matters to you, is a huge part of your thought habits, because if you always pick subjects you like, you'll always pick the subject for yourself. Then I would start seeing views and likes for what they are to you, tools. Tools to let you be even better at making videos. Tools to let you see, what works and don't works. Always let the enjoyment of making the videos the primary motivator, and then the rest is a bonus. I hope that was helpful in one way or the other :)
This is something I've been puzzling over for half my life. I definitely have felt it too; and not surprisingly I'm a programmer as well. I've never seen it put quite so well as you have. Thanks. (I'd tell you to keep making great videos, but that would contribute to the feeling of being controlled)
A great subject indeed! It sort of explains the struggle to finish projects. It always start with a bang, but the motivation definitely decreases as time goes by.
I won't tell you how much I enjoyed it so you won't feel demotivated :)
As an Internet marketer I know exactly the feeling of doing keyword research and finding out that the most popular topics are the ones you really couldn't care less about. What I do to combat this is to limit myself to not do too many of those boring things. Maybe once a month or so I pay attention to them, just because they are important to my end goal, but otherwise I focus on what I think is fun to do. Also, breaking up the boring tasks into smaller pieces helps a lot as well. It's much easier to write an article about something if you split it up into three parts, than doing it all at once.
Here's what works for me, some of the time. I ignore the external motivation. I acknowledge it's there, but then go on with the task for my own internal reasons. It's like bad thoughts, as all psychologists say, the best way to deal with them is to acknowledge them and let them flow away. :)
Insightful stuff. Love your work.
Oh god... It was like you were talking about my very self.
I thought I was the only one with these feelings! Thanks for clearing somethings I coudn't figure out.
Btw, I'm really enjoying your channel. Your videos are really dynamic, different from the usual "code-on-screen" we find around here.
You're doing a great job.
+Guilherme Silva thanks a ton, glad to hear it's all working! ;)
I have been thinking about this. Thank you.
I think the answer to the question you posed is integrity. Learn what your top values are, respect them at all times and your motivation should be fine despite the external motivators.
I find myself contemplating this effect often in my career.
I think it's a major factor why generally speaking, engineers in this field tend to jump from job to job frequently. Usually each jump raises your self efficacy by increasing your salary by some amount or increasing your responsibilities.
This pattern provides a new measurement of self-worth each time increasing your motivation overall. Not to mention it's rather easy to reapply this pattern due to the number of software engineering jobs, at least where I live. Variety is a major factor I think.
Like you said at the end, maybe I'm just describing myself.
Just started watching the show, really enjoying it mate.
Thank you for raising this issue.
I would think myself that this kind of natural reaction are hard to workaround, like fatigue. The only thing which works for me is to acknowledge it as early as possible and do something else for sometime. Trying to resist usually make things worse for me...
I think you actually did the right thing in this episode.
I know what you are talking about. It was the worst for me in school. For every class I took, I would be excited to learn about the subject but after the first homework assignment, I was suddenly ready for the semester to end. I've actually started to believe that being "motivated" by grades in school is probably the most detrimental model of education for people who are already intrinsically motivated to learn.
Hello,
I'm currently learning information technologies and i watch your channel because it helps me to learn new interesting stuff about FE development.
I want to tell you that your channel help people learn. Every one in my situation is bored from monotone tutorials and i believe that channels like yours help people understand better. I am experiencing the same motivation issues along with self confidence issues.
Think of your videos as a teaching beginners a new things, and instead of searching what is popular on the web you can start series from end to end tutorials, where all can be included, one episode after another.
You are doing great job on this channel, keep up the good work and stay motivated :)
I feel like I need to super like this video because I turn back to it many times.
Enjoyed this vid! Been struggling with this myself... Thanks.
Hey there Mr. Fun fun function, I started my coding journey just 4 months ago and I rarely follow anyone on UA-cam and I think this is probably the 4th comment I have ever write... I just want you to know a few things...
- Your videos are helping a lot of people, at least has helped me a lot to understand concepts and new things, the school where I am learning also recommended your videos as a learning support, so there are at least 50 more people also being help by you.
- I usually try not to pay attention to money or external incentives to do the things I do because it makes me feel unmotivated (that weird feeling of doing important things just for money..:S)
- What usually helps me to feel happy and motivated again is one thing; PURPOSE, To know WHY you are doing this can bring you back to the big picture, first maybe because you enjoy it, but also, because it's changing the world (at least a small part of it), because one day you had that dream of doing something amazing that not only you enjoy but also helps the world, I guess is also a way to share (give back) what life gave to you.
When you feel that there is reason for what you are doing more than money, just remember your big picture and see this as one more step to reach that goal. If your big picture is what you are doing now, then is time to start painting a new big picture...
Thank you for all you're doing! :).
Typically I just look for inspiration somewhere and do what ever it is I'm inspired to do. For example watching a lot of your videos inspired me to get more into JavaScript when I previously didn't touch the language. If I were making these videos I would just make a video about what ever it is I felt like rather than what is popular. By doing the latter you shift your motivation from doing it for fun to doing something for external approval (views, likes, etc). I hope you find motivation to keep on going because this is honestly the only programming channel I actually enjoy watching and would hate to see it go :( keep on keeping on!
You are inspiring developers like me. I watch your vlogs when i feel low. Thanks a lot...
When I find myself in this "Burned out" and "Lack of motivation" mode I take a week of vacation during which I do absolutely nothing important. No errands or chores or anything like that. Just watching videos when I feel like it, or playing video or board games when in the mood. Week of such cooling off is proven to be enough for me to re-charge and get back to normal.
Well you described it. Finding out what subconscious triggers you have and dealing with them consciously, like this video started to do and was a fun watch. When the western world finally tackles the subconscious fully, as in makes everything we don't know about our mind conscious, we'll have a lot more control (which is a motivating factor if you like control of your life ;) )
Of course because this can often be tied to pain/pleasure often people don't like looking at what repels them, because by its nature it repels them for whatever reason. The big thing I saw that you mentioned was that money was a factor that can repel people, you'll notice in other people all the money in the world only drives them further. So the better question might be to ask, why certain people are repelled by money/view count and why certain people find these things drives them.
And when people do more than dismiss it with a label, like greed, extrovert/introvert, lazy/crazy etc which only serves to cut them off from anything useful, and REALLY see the unconscious mind consciously, as in all the triggers or motivators which make people do what they do, then people can reshape their life as they like.
But it often means looking at the aspects of you, the world, or the person next to you that you don't like to do this. Also it can mean getting over the often social pressures that can be around you (or triggers) to things like therapy for some people. Almost anyone would benefit from some hypnotherapy,if only to get something out of their system, but most people you tell that to will be triggered by the term itself :D, its quite ironic, as it'd be better to improve these systems like NLP or hypnotherapy or carl jung's ego model or whatever else by working on them or at least looking at them.
Anyway, enough of a talk. Good luck.
Happens to me all the time. Glad to hear someone like you deals with the same issues. I found your videos during a time like this. My approach ? Learn something new. Whatever strikes me first. I am learning FP and you inspired me to perhaps make some videos from a old programers perspective. I have been programming on and off since the VIC 20 and was in College when the industry was embracing OOP from procedural. I also found out recently that others like me have never liked OOP and found it to be problematic. If I had not went through what you are going through, then I would not have found that little tidbit out. That in turn helped my efficacy Thanks for the Videos and I like the hat too!
These videos are just what I needed. Learning to code in my quite generous spare time is still such a huge problem for my self motivation. I work as a network technician/engineer/contractor and I have always dabbled in code since I was in school. At the moment in my life my financial needs are met. I'm not earning a lot of money but I have a large amount of free time. I have been through periods of passionate all night coding that ended in huge payoffs of personal satisfaction and I have been through periods of not wanting to look at the project I'm working on because it feels out of my depth. The barriers I have come to are usually due to the volume of complexity. Large amounts of different interconnecting files and folder structures that overlay different technologies or middlewares - like getting angular to work on node with both express and sockets.io running stuff on a html5 canvas.
I've decided its not worth it for me in my novice phase of coding to over burden myself with large projects even if they seem simple and logical in my head. Merely the upgrade rate of around 9 middlewares alone is driving me crazy.
I'm in this exact situation probably at least one a month. Usually what ends up working is I'll take a mini-vacation and just play for a few days, until the compulsive need to "get stuff done / make progress" becomes stronger than the feelings repelling me from the work.
And for the record, I think I appreciate this video more than one on the "find" function, so you're doing something right!
Thanks a lot. Great video.
thanks! you just nailed it!
This is my favourite episode :) Basically: Make videos about anything you want, those will be the best ones.
Thanks a lot, great video. I think this feeling kicks in as soon as you make yourself (unwritten) promises to maintain library x, reply to issues withing y hours, do a release at least every z weeks, etc. At some point you need willpower to overcome temporary drops in enthusiasm to keep these promises. Instead of *wanting* to do something you *must* do something. That kills my motivation.
Actually I had this feeling this weekend. There where a couple of issues in open source projects that required my attention, but I was just tired and not in the mood to work on it. Now I left my open source projects untouched for the whole weekend (!!), and instead spend time on family, sleeping, watching movies, and gaming. And things did not collapse :). Today I'm energetic again and eager to pick stuff up.
Hello! I'm from Costa Rica and I'm "starting" in programming using JS and its environment. Thanks to your videos I have learned and opted for many things. Thank you so much. Currently I could not get a job because I still lack some practical experience, I demotivate a little and did not want to play anymore JS haha, but now I am ready for it. So I thank you again!
Definitely a good video. One of the reasons I love your channel.
As a side note, it's amazing to me to see how brazen you are. Pretty sure I would have never just entered the quarry like that. You're just casually strolling through there. Lol.
This video was very relevant to me today. You helped me to notice that my current lack of motivation (as evidenced by watching videos and commenting on them) is definitely due to these factors. I know I need to keep pushing through, but it's hard to keep going when I don't even feel like any of it matters.
Currently lacking a team, it doesn't feel like my efforts have any impact on anything. No one is watching. No one will notice. Etc. The whole, what's the point feeling is very strong currently.
Anyways, you really helped shine a light on some things for me and it's truly appreciated. I know this video is old but keep up the good work (as you have been ;) )
thanks a ton for calling me brazen!
I'm working for more than 10 years in a company that builds softwares. By challenge and maybe by some kind of pride, I accepted more project management responsabilities over time and this decision definitely switches my career path to PM over pure developpement tasks. It was motivating at the beginning, since I had to learn new stuffs in this domain but now I think I don't want to pursue in the path. Even if the situation in the company hierarchy is higher and the pay and advantages are better, etc... all of these are "external motivations" and like you I lost my "inner motivations" which is basically building softwares, learning new stuffs, have direct results, etc...
I'm currently looking for job opportunities within other companies to re-align my "inner motivation" and my job responsabilities. During this process, I've also had a set of interviews for another PM job with better "external motiviation" but then, with the offer in hands, I refused it because I clearly knew that it wasn't matching my deep inner motivations. That's in fact this process that allows me to find your channel btw: I wanted to discover a bit more of JS to see if this area was interesting for me or not. Seeing your motivation, passion and the fun you seem to have while presenting the JS concepts comforts me in my decision to change job. This present video at least helped me to put a name on this feeling: "inner motivation". I hope I'll find this job, that my inner motivation won't fade over time and that I would have done the right choice.
At the end, I don't know if my comment match really the purpose of this video :o) But I want to leave a comment of motivation for you and your work: I've already watched more than 15 videos in a week they are all funny and instructives. Your schedule of one video/week must really but hard to follow since the video level are very good. I still have a lot of video to watch but when I will have watch all of them I'm pretty sure that I would be a bit disappointed if there was not video on Monday morning; but I'm also sure that I would be more disappointed if the channel closes. You already have a nice project and community, we will understand a bit of rest ;o)
I was in this kind of situation for far too long, and then I decided I should change jobs... I tried to go into DataScience but without success and finally decided to just dump my job... This was really like a load off my mind, best professional decision I have ever made! After that I could do whatever the hell I wanted and sure I did... I learned DataScience like a beast and after a year I successfully landed a job in the field. So I can say this: Just do it! Try something new!
Omg this video explain why after some smalls success's i had in my life i sometimes giveup. I feel that my core value is freedom.Nowadays i prefer to rely on discipline. Motivation is a bad friend.
I can totally relate to this! As soon as people start throwing money or opportunities at me or as soon as there are expectations from others, I have a tendency to "go dark". Sometimes I just wanna delve into a hobby or passion of mine just for me - nobody has to know about it and I can really just enjoy it for what it is in that moment. But it's really hard getting back the momentum you once had and then you find yourself competing against yourself which totally sucks. I suppose you just have to get clear on your WHY... to constantly ask yourself "WHY am I doing this?" and to keep reminding yourself of that reason and hopefully it gets you out of the slump.
+Raylene Harvey defining "why" helps a lot. I've found that another thing complements that top. My brother, who works as an artist, said that he deals with this by clearly defining to himself the boundaries of the job. I.e. What is expected of me because I am given this money. Or maybe - What work do I actually need to do in order to not suffer negative consequences (breaking the contract, the client becoming disappointed). When you do this, you can wall the money-part of the project off and get that out of the way, and then the rest of the project is now "yours" again. It's harder to pull off than it sounds, but I've found it useful advice.
funfunfunction Great advice! As creatives (I'm a web developer myself) we tend to push ourselves beyond the limits of what is expected by the client and over time we only end up burning ourselves out. I love the idea of setting that boundary for the "money" part so that I can get back to doing my own thing. I'm a new subscriber and already loving your channel. Thanks for taking the time to respond to my comment.
I relate to this massively. I love your videos!
Please continue doing the good work. I like your videos.
This is a great topic! From an open source dev I have lost a huge amount of motivation for supporting some OS projects . The biggest deterrents have been lack of contributors, bad issue reporting, and entitlement. Also a sheer lack of time when your job and family outweigh your time to contribute to a project that is not relevant to your current workload.
Thanks, this was helpful. I am in the beginning stages of a coding bootcamp right now and my motivation is seriously suffering. It didn't make sense because it's a wonderful opportunity that I worked extremely hard to get, and had to borrow money from several people to make possible. I should be so excited and motivated, but I'm struggling. This explains some of those feelings to some degree. I hope I can find a solution, because failure is not an option.
This video was a worthwhile thing to do :) Thank you and keep on!
You're not alone and I haven't yet found a solution to this problem, but I'll keep searching inside and outside. Thanks for your wonderful videos, I like your unique way of spreading information ;)
As a software dev and a fairly recent college grad, I definitely resonate with this video. It's so easy to feel coerced into doing something and lose your motivation as a result, even if the problem you're faced with seems interesting.
I guess one thing that I've thought about, and I think has helped, is tuning out / turning off impersonal feedback mechanisms - in your case that would be stuff like views and likes. In my experience, I create things to provide others with a richer experience of the world; I want to help people connect with each other or give them better access to the information they need. Since what I want is to influence individual experiences, the only effective motivation is the conversations I have with those individuals.
Likes/stars/shares/retweets give me a rush, but it's like eating junk food; I end up crashing from looking for that reward mechanism and I don't benefit from those experiences. Same deal with paid gigs. If my focus is on the money or completing a set amount of work to appease some higher power, and I lose sight of experiences I can get from new tech I'm working with or interactions I'm having, I'm just in it for a reward mechanism that I inevitably build up a tolerance to. You have to keep being inspired to stay motivated and that usually means disabling the repetitive feedback mechanism and enabling the novel ones.
Very interesting video. Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose: definitely agree, they're the key to stay motivated.
I absolutely know what you are talking about! My observation so far is, that I do best on jobs where my motivation comes out of other things than just money. I'm a Freelancer and I try to accept only jobs where I like the people I am working with and the project at least a little bit. Money does not motivate me enough to do stupid, boring stuff, for people I don't like. And even if I am not excited about the job - if I get along quite well with the people I am dealing with, that is a lot better motivation at least for me. I won't say that I don't care about money, but at least I got the luxury to skip a few jobs from time to time where I feel, that I can't motivate me just because they pay me well and I think this is where autonomy from the people and their money comes into play quite heavily and feels so good even if it means, that I loose a few bugs.
I can relate to a lot of this. Thanks
Thank you for being so frank Mattias. I know the feeling & while Im learning JS, somedays, I just cannot pull myself together to go on with the next challenge.
Great video.
Our sensitive egos and constant need to feel secure mixed with our understanding we've acquired through observation that our society supposedly only values successful people leads us to want to hold on to success when we've obtained some. Recognizing that we have sensitive egos and that we are constantly seeking security can allow you to be more critical of why you are doing why you are doing it.
This conflicts with our possibly natural tendency to want to be free and do what brings us joy.
We have internalized the logic of the market -- unless millions of people like me I am worthless.
Defiantly see myself in this video. I have started to move up in my career and often find that the simple joy of being a scrappy programmer working on wales of projects seems to be diminishing. I feel like the extra pressures on my position as I move up seem to push my actual motivations down. I think it also almost cheapens that moment when you step back and survey what has been done. Thanks for making this video and look forward to the Bind video if/when it comes out.
This was Amazing thank you I honestly thought I was the only person feeling this way from thinking wayyy too much, good job dude!
+Elvin Perez thanks!
Nice one! Please make more of this video
Interesting fact is that real entrepreneurs always take money first and then use this kind of pressure you talked about as a driving force to get things done. So autonomy strongly connected to the purpose. If you feel yourself as a creative person - just relax and wait for inspiration to come. If not or you want to conquer the world - then you need to develop self-discipline.
Nice hat, by the way! )
In regard to be in Control: If an external forces comes in and disrupt the fact that I am in control, I look at who my work will enable to improve motivation.
Just found this Channel, and im impressed :)
Really enjoy your videos Dude .. insightful and amusing ... and buy an umbrella!!
When this happens, I like to just relax and meditate for a while. Get my head away from it (as you did) and then try to remember why it was I wanted to do the thing in the first place. If I still want to, I do it. If I don't still want to, and I have to do it, I do it :/. If I don't still want to, and I don't have to do it, I don't do it! Going for a walk in a scary place has to help for sure though! Thanks so much mpj, this was a nice video to watch instead of finding what I was looking for (middleware)! Always great to see your videos, they help make our journey a lot more fun! I definitely feel the same and thanks to you I've become aware of this again, as it had become unconscious for me (psych major)!
Feeling the same for a couple of months and nothing, even money, couldn't help me. I tried to analized what encouraged me before and I discovered that it was the same things that u talked about: challenge and something new, that is out of my knowledge base. I think the best way to break this mood and get out this circle is to start learning something new: a framework or something else, that will play a role in a nearest future or widen your view. Its hard to explain, but the main thing is to find something that will give u a new taste of challenge... I think you talked about all this things in a video. Cheers))
I had some idea what you're going to talk about as soon as I saw the title. Regarding the ending, you are definitely not alone in this feeling. But I too haven't found a viable solution to this problem. The way I try to minimize it is be aware of these bursts of motivation and excitement and make sure I don't overwork myself in these periods. It used to be a common theme for me to find something exciting and fall for the feeling similar to being in the zone, but when the excitement diminished, I noticed traces of burnout.
The way I go about controlling this is I set a block of time when I'm going to work, which is usually about 3h at a time, and then have a break to make or get a meal, read something (book, medium, reddit, etc.), go for a jog or in the gym, watch a comedy tv show or play some videogames, but those can pull me in for more time that I'd like to admit 😅
Btw, the background of your walking videos, like the scene at 3:55 in this one, remind me of Firewatch 😀
This video really nails my feelings about programming right now. Ive been wondering if I only enjoy programming as a hobby and not as a career. I'm constantly wondering if my skills are actually good enough to make the cut. Where I thought I was doubting my self efficacy, it might be the autonomy or lack of control. This has given me a lot to think about.