

Ask HN: What motivates you in your work? - tomek_zemla

What is the breakdown of your motivation in choosing jobs, contracts or building startups? How much of it is money driven and what are the other factors? Did it change in the course of your career?
======
segmondy
It's all money driven. Nothing else, money, the more money, the more motivated
I'm. I don't subscribe into the idea that work is fun or should be fun. If it
is, great! If it's not, whatever!

~~~
ddorian43
what would you do if you didn't need money ?

~~~
hvoiiita
Most people would be satisfied with their hobbies, I think. I know I wouldn't
do anything I didn't like anymore.

------
bowlich
I think my motivation for day-to-day work is different from the motivation
that goes into choosing a job.

In no particular order:

Money: There's a certain threshold of that I need to achieve to maintain the
lifestyle that I want. I'll take as much over that threshold as I can get, but
below it is a no-go.

Remote: I move a lot, my average lease anywhere is 6 months. I want to live in
every state in the U.S. and perhaps a couple countries in Europe and Asia
before I die, being able to be remote lets me make that happen.

Professional Satisfaction: I like the problems that I'm solving to be overall
interesting, that is, I would like them to have some novelty and perhaps be
challenging my existing skill set. I am not interested in just doing route
work where I am stagnating by just exercising the same skills or challenges
over and over again. If not, it becomes difficult to be motivated for the day-
to-day work.

Ethical Behavior: I set a high standard for the ethical treatment of clients
and client's clients and I expect my employer to as well. This means not
collecting or sharing private user data if we do not have the resources to do
it securely. This means turning down feature requests or projects because the
client is asking for behavior that is legally dubious, abuses privileged
information, or would be do more harm to the client or the client's clients
then good. I do not believe in selling a project to someone if I cannot stand
behind the service. That is will be overall beneficial and has the possibility
to succeed. I don't want to waste someone else's money on a project that has
no or little chance of success or promise them false hope in order to make a
sale.

------
pjungwir
In general professional service firms aim for a balance between three goals:
profitability, professional satisfaction, and client service. As a freelancer,
I try to satisfy the same goals. I want a good income. I want my work to be
enjoyable, rewarding, and make me grow. And I want my clients to be happy.

All three of those are genuine ends in themselves. If any is missing, I'll be
unhappy. If I'm not earning enough, I'll be worried. If I'm making a fortune
but doing horrible work, I'll yearn all day for something else. If I'm eagerly
diving into the latest tech but my clients are dissatisfied, I'll feel like I
don't deserve their business.

Each goal is also a means to the other two, but it's important to keep that in
the background. Of course I'll earn more if I keep my clients happy, but if
that's my only motivation, things will eventually break down. One reason I
freelance is that I value the interpersonal side of software development,
meeting with clients and helping them achieve their goals.

There are projects I've really sought that didn't pay as well I could make but
were interesting or would let me develop new skills. There are projects I've
sought because of who I could work with. I'm willing to give up some cash for
those ends. I'm still financially motivated, but I like my job and I take
pride in it, so money isn't everything.

------
sergiotapia
100% money based motivation. I don't particularly like programming but I'm
good at it. I just want more money to buy things I enjoy using/doing.

------
tobinharris
I run a small company so might be a different perspective than you're looking
for. But in general my motivations are:

1\. Working with people that challenge me, make me laugh, and who do great
work. And who I can have a beer with :) That goes for the team here and our
customers.

2\. Doing projects or products that are challenging and somehow "meaningful"
to me. I like to enter unchartered territory in my projects where possible.

3\. Earning enough money to be happy day to day (I don't need much), but
having the slightest opportunity to earn LOADS of money :)

It did change my career. I started out earning good money contracting ($200K)
and got bored after 4 years. Then started a business working with good people
but bad clients and non-meaningful project, the business failed after 4 years.
Now I'm building products and projects with great clients earning reasonable
money, and working with a fun team.

------
relaunched
I'm a product manager. So, working and re-working solutions to problems and
watching the users interact with each iteration really gets me going.

It's all about playing with technology and using it to solve problems.

------
martin1b
The women! They go crazy over programmers...

------
read
Primarily opportunities to do things I haven't done before.

------
news_to_me
Office snacks. It's all about the snacks.

