

What motivates programmers? - pk2004
http://nickhalstead.com/what-motivates-programmers

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BSousa
As with just about every "How to motivate programmers" article out there, this
is crap. As tjpick mentioned, how about treating us as normal people?

Honestly, I like me money. Loads of it. 400 pounds for me = month's mortgage
pay, which would be quite handy. I don't give a rats ass about having a new
shiny toy. Money = Free time for me. 'Programmers' also have lives that don't
revolve around computers, and having some extra money to spend on those
activities (new surfboard, books, trip with the family, shiny toy for the
children, whatever) beats the living crap of having a monitor that isn't
really mine as a bonus!

And yeah, I'll take a 50,000 EUR boring job at a bank than a 25.000 EUR one at
a start up (unless it is my start up). Those extra 25k in savings will come
quite handy when I want to do something for myself (start up, travel the
world, learn Japanese cooking, etc) in a couple years than a shiny LCD or
Pirate Day Friday or whatever crap is being thrown down the throats of people
in articles like these so stop saying that money doesn't matter. IT DOES!

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tjpick
anyone else get tired of this "programmers are special", navel-gazing, pseudo-
analytical tripe? How about treating programmers as individuals with different
tastes and motivators instead of stereotyping to the classic "geeks want new
toys and to be left alone to write codes" mold.

> I typically upgrade at the top of the tree and push machines downwards

that's one practice I find incredibly distasteful. If someone needs a new
computer, give it to them. If they don't, leave them alone to do real work
instead. You're only rewarding the guy at the top, everyone else is getting
hand-me-downs. Nothing says love and respect like being given someone else's
cast-offs... yeah right.

> Programmers program because they love to solve problem

citation needed.

~~~
gaius
I wonder if this is how it works with salesmen and fancier company cars, or
managers and bigger offices,

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abyssknight
Cross posted from the blog's comments:

Stop calling them programmers. That's the first step to motivating them. Your
job is not synonymous with the act; there is a lot more to application
development than the actual writing of the code.

~~~
mahmud
Coding might not be the be-all end-all competence, but technical "maturity" is
essential for communication with programmers. And the appropriate designation
of developers, as such, is very important.

I consult with businesses for software development, and it's crap like this
that wastes 10-20 minutes of my time on every conference call.

There is a whole layer-cake of bureaucracy around titles and how they're
tossed around, and I have to spend that time figuring out which of these
analysts/developers/leads/specialists/architects can _actually_ code or admin.
It sucks to be in mid deliberation, stream-of-consciousness reporting about
what you have done, giving a sermon without shell-completion .. when you get
this faint suspicion that the audience doesn't know what you're talking about.
When you tell me you have your three developers on the line, I am gonna talk
to them like developers.

It might sound patronizing, but I am very close to just starting each call
with "so, which one of you guys can code?".

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awa
I wish the author would have read "How to be a programmer" book or atleast the
motivation section in it.

It says to keep motivated:

1\. Use the best language and tools to do the job.

2\. Look for opportunities to apply new techniques, technology and languages.

3\. Try to learn or teach something in every project.

It adds that each programmer has some other hidden factors which will motivate
them, it could be as simple as knowing fixing this bug will result in a happy
customer.

I just want a manager/org which will help enable me to do the above and
ofcourse pay me enough that I don't have to worry about the money factor.

Btw... personally I would find it pretty cheap to use hand me down machines.
If you are paying your programmers competitively, you should provide them with
good machines to keep their productivity up. I don't want to take a 10 min
break when its compiling and if I have to I will probably end up spending
15-20 mins on the pinball machine (or on HN).

------
blahblahblah
24" 1920x1200 display as a bonus? Seriously? A 24" CRT display was standard
equipment that I was issued as a entry level hire ten years ago. If you want
to make your devs feel like valued employees now, you're going to have to aim
a little higher with the geek toys you distribute. Multiple displays is
standard now. If you want to impress somebody in 2010, you're going to have to
step up your game. Might I suggest a 4 megapixel 30" LCD upgrade so your devs
can have the advantages of multiple displays without the annoying middle-of-
the-desktop bezel gap?

