## Motivation
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Why do we do the things we do?
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### External motivation
Carrot and stick; someone else sets our path.
- activity feels meaningless
- makes it easier to procrastinate
- long-term: numbs our self-motivation
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### Internal motivation
We have our own target and we follow it.
- progress feels more rewarding
- brings good mood
- engages creativity and learning
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### Goal-based motivation
We want to achieve something in the future.
Two phases:
1. long displeasure from not reaching the goal
2. short rush of joy from reaching the goal
- that quickly evaporates
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#### Pros:
It works!
#### Cons:
It is harmful and not sustainable
Joy fades over time, requiring more demanding goals.
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### Hedonic treadmill 🔗
> Humans quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness despite major positive or negative events.
The reward for finishing a major goal
is not worth a long struggle to get there.
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### My past goal
> I'll build a cool website for generating artwork and sell the art and the code!
1. *Build it*
- I built the website!
- I enjoyed this part.
2. *Sell it*
- I never managed to do any selling.
- I hated this part.
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### Journey-based motivation
Joy is found in doing an activity, not finishing it.
* We enjoy the activity itself
* Unlocks the state of flow
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### Flow
State of deep immersion in an activity that...
* is challenging
* makes use of our strengths
* matches our skills
* is enjoyable.
We tend to lose our sense of time,
and it feels good.
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### You know the feeling
of staying up late
running compile just one last time
with the help of a random forum post
hoping it finally starts working.
**Right?**
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### Personal vision
How we'd like to spend our limited time.
Journey-based, internal motivation
- activities we'd like to be doing
- milestones we'd like to pass
- supporting something meaningful
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### Meaning
is a subjective motivation.
It goes beyond ourselves:
- helping others / greater good,
- creating a lasting legacy.
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### Group vision
Cooperation of individual visions.
> The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
Both the group and its members achieve more
than lonely individuals.
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### Meaning for me
I'm a fan of free and open source software:
- Daily user:
- OS & apps
- fixes & features
- documentation, tips, help
- Contributor:
- releasing code, fixes
- sponsoring useful projects and individuals
**Everyone benefits.**
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### TOOL: Personal Vision
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What gets out of bed in the morning?
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#### How to build a Personal Vision?
1. Personal SWOT analysis
2. List your Achievements
3. Analyze motivating activities
4. Define a Beta-Vision
5. Final Personal Vision
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#### Step 1:
### Personal SWOT
A few paragraphs of what you want to be doing.
--- ### Act Now! Starting small is fine, as long as you start! *How can you incorporate your vision in your daily life?* -V- ### My First Steps 1. Coding refresher: - **Kotlin** Koans - **Go** by Example - Learn **Go** with Tests - Personal **React** project 2. Fixing defects in the Android apps that I use (in Kotlin). -V- ### My Findings - starting small & early was great: - for "prototyping" the vision - (e.g.: Go is not so great) - to experiment stress-free - to avoid overthinking it - I regularly experienced flow, improved my mood, raised my skills and really enjoyed doing it. - having a vision for your life is useless without taking action