talk-end-of-procrastination/slides/motivation.md

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

S

Strengths

W

Weaknesses

O

Opportunities

T

Threats

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Strengths

• skills, traits and qualities you have
• using them supports flow
• personal vision makes use of these as much as possible

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My Strengths

• life-long programming experience
• perfectionist, love creating clean software
• persevering problem solver (especially for mysteries in tech)
• open-minded and attentive listener
• ...

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Weaknesses

• qualities you lack; limitations and negative traits
• using them retards flow
• personal vision avoids them if possible

These can be improved
but don't devote too much time to it.

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My Weaknesses

• introverted, social interactions are taxing
• weak in group dynamics, not a "people person"
• cautious in opinions, not an "influencer"

I spent way too much time fighting my social skills.

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Opportunities

• possibilities today's world offers to you
• using them supports flow
• personal vision builds on them

Only a few will be used.

The rest needs to be rejected and banished:

• to gain focus, clarity and mastery,
• to avoid decision paralysis or regrets.

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My Opportunities

• switch jobs for better role / pay / tech stack
• get back to distributed systems
• build expertise on one specific topic
• get exposure through knowledge sharing (talks)
• ...

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Threats

• risks, possible negative impacts or scenarios
• take them into account, be prepared
• awareness helps with facing fears

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My Threats

• changed role or job:
  • boring / stressful / annoying tasks
  • toxic workplace
  • lower pay / long commute
  • having to use Windows
• more exposure leading to personal attacks

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My Observations

• it felt misaligned with the current career
  (coding vs. people management)
• Threats already applied to the current situation

Change was apparently needed & low risk.

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Step 2:

Personal Achievements

• things that brought you joy / you are proud of
• provides specific evidence of your strengths
• helps to gain confidence and think positively

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My Achievements

• finished college, wrote a cool master's thesis
• became a team leader
• self-hosting my services via VPS
• extracted ERP legacy tax functionality via a strategy pattern
• learned to type using the Workman layout
• ...

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My Observations

• Nice! I did some cool things!
• Very little of it was connected to people management

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Step 3:

Analyzing motivating activities

Find what drives you to strengthen your vision.

Categories:

• bringing personal growth
• creating legacy
• building relationships
• has deeper meaning

Look for synergies and groups.

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My Activities

• writing readable code, testing, refactoring
• exploring new technologies and approaches
• contributing to open source projects
• learning through books and conferences
• knowledge sharing through blog, mentoring, talks
• working with colleagues - reviews, discussions
• research of innovative solutions
• solving problems, making software more useful ...

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My Activities Grouped

• collaborative software development (direct)
• exchange of experience (learning & teaching)
• research, experiments, investigation

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Step 4:

Beta-Vision

Finding a personal vision takes effort and time.

Finding a beta version is easier
therefore you won't procrastinate to start!

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My Beta-Vision

• coding useful software on a daily basis
  • publicly, open source
  • Kotlin, TypeScript
• learning from others and sharing my knowledge
  • collaboration, discussions
  • blogging, talks, mentoring
• specialize in one area

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Step 5:

Final Personal Vision

A few paragraphs of what you want to be doing.

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Act Now!

Starting small is fine, as long as you start!

How can you incorporate your vision in your daily life?

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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).

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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