Ask HN: What motivates you in life? - kiloreux
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aml183
I just read the book Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankel. I think it
does a fantastic job of answering the questions about the meaning of life.

Viktor came up with the theory of Logotherapy which in a nutshell has 3 parts:

\- Life has meaning under all circumstances, even the most miserable ones.

\- Our main motivation for living is our will to find meaning in life.

\- We have freedom to find meaning in what we do, and what we experience, or
at least in the stand we take when faced with a situation of unchangeable
suffering

[https://www.amazon.com/Mans-Search-Meaning-Viktor-
Frankl/dp/...](https://www.amazon.com/Mans-Search-Meaning-Viktor-
Frankl/dp/080701429X)

~~~
pella
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man's_Search_for_Meaning](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man's_Search_for_Meaning)

------
RUG3Y
I'm motivated by the pursuit of things that interest me because I perceive
them to be worth knowing.

Unfortunately, crippling depression and a looming feeling of nihilism are
sucking most of my motivation away.

~~~
blackflame7000
Even if life is meaningless, you still only get to do it once. Sometimes its
more fun when playing on cheat codes if you know what I mean. If life is
meaningless then its impossible to fail because the failure had no meaning to
begin with. It is however possible to succeed by setting out a goal and
accomplishing it. There lies the fundamental difference. The meaning of life
is determined solely by the individual and not an exterior presence. You give
your own life meaning based on how important of emphasis you place on your
goals. If your goals are meaningless, then so is life. If your goals are
meaningful, then your life is too.

~~~
yarou
It's always fun to play with cheats on.

------
faitswulff
Motivation is a really tough one. Honestly, I am mostly motivated to go out of
my way for delicious food and seeing friends. But if you're talking about
motivation for productivity, it's more complicated. I've written about this
before on HN:

In my younger and more foolish days, and inspired by Steve Jobs, I tried to
literally live life as if every day were my last in an effort to be
productive. I discovered that if it were my last day on earth, I would much
rather spend the time joking around with friends or family rather than
working, and I fell into a depressive funk.

Abstract thoughts about death, while depressive, don't motivate me. What does
end up "motivating" me are developing habits. In order to develop habits, I
use pathetically achievable goals:

I find goals to be counterproductive unless they're simply achieved and a
matter of habit. For instance, "go to the gym and do nothing" became "go to
the gym and walk on the treadmill" when I became habituated to showing up at
the gym. Now I'm lifting regularly and I feel off if I don't get a chance to
go work out.

Audacious goals, on the other hand, are demotivating because there's too much
chance of failure. If I hold myself to lifting certain weights, I may even end
up getting injured. But now I'm happy simply showing up, doing what I have the
capacity for, whether it's walking, stretching, or lifting. I can (and will)
come back if I have an off day.

Scott Adams talks about something similar in Goals vs Systems[1]. A goal of
writing a book is much harder to achieve than a goal of typing a little bit in
the morning. Ironically, the latter may be the best route to the former...as
long as you don't think about it too much :)

[1]: [http://blog.dilbert.com/post/102964992706/goals-vs-
systems](http://blog.dilbert.com/post/102964992706/goals-vs-systems)

~~~
Jugurtha
> _Abstract thoughts about death, while depressive, don 't motivate me. What
> does end up "motivating" me are developing habits. In order to develop
> habits, I use pathetically achievable goals_

This. I was chatting with a friend and he asked me about how I get motivated.
My answer is that I abstract away the motivation with a process.

For instance, I used to work out a lot when I was younger and then stopped..
But when I wanted to work out recently, what I did to start the habit wasn't
to go to the gym because that's a "new thing", an _action_ and I'm a
"procrastinator"..

I incorporated working out with the act of taking a shower and they became
one, so each time I was _about to take a shower_ , I'd do a few hundred push
ups, then get in the shower and do a 100 successive squats and that was it.
It's not much but it beats nothing. If I imagined I had to _wear_ clothes, go
out _somewhere_ , _work out_ , then _come back_ and _take a shower_ , I
wouldn't do it..

As a side note, when I was in college, my commute was 6 hours and arriving
late to class. Then they added a university bus. I had to take a bus to get to
the Uni bus and I had to wake up early, so I said "why not work out while I'm
at it". Woke up at 4h30 and a good work out, shower and food, and about 30
minutes of review study. The energy I had through the _whole day_ was amazing.

~~~
faitswulff
That's a good point. Combining actions that you already execute with habits
you would like to develop can be a powerful thing.

To take the gym example further, I realized that I needed to be doing more
cardio (any cardio at all), but the treadmill was the most boring activity on
earth. I could only spend a few minutes on it before getting bored. To combat
this, I started listening to an audio language lesson in a foreign language
that I'd been meaning to learn while walking on the treadmill.

Pretty soon, I ended up spending 20+ minute chunks of time on the treadmill
while learning my target language, which amplified both of the habits that I
wanted.

------
blackflame7000
I am motivated by the desire to never say the phrase, "I wish I would have ...
when I was younger"

~~~
IpV8
That sounds super stressfull

~~~
blackflame7000
Its stressful if you're someone who keeps a list of your failures to remind
yourself of your own humanity. Me, I'm a half glass full kind of guy. I look
back and think of all the times I sucked up the courage to enter a difficult
social situation and it turned out unbelievably better than anything I had
envisioned. That motivates me to continue to challenge myself to do things
that make me uncomfortable so that I can adapt and improve.

------
roxaneoriel
Hi Everyone - I work as the executive assistant to the Chief Information
Officer at my company. I am so envious of my developer colleagues and would
love to learn how to code. Any suggestions on where I should start? My
colleague recommended the W3Schools online. Any other suggestions you may
have? Thanks soooo much!

~~~
julsonl
I'd suggest finding a hands-on online course that gives you a tiny portfolio
in the end. A lot of the fun with programming is seeing your work come alive
and seeing all the projects you've completed. Assuming you haven't programmed
before, I wouldn't go with buying a programming language-specific book to
start since those can be pretty boring to go through. Books will start to be
useful as you develop a lot more curiosity and want to fill in your knowledge
gaps.

My friend's learning from the ground-up and he's using Code Academy
([https://www.codecademy.com](https://www.codecademy.com)). If you're a little
more serious about this, you could also look into Udacity's Nanodegree
program.

~~~
katpas
I'd also recommend giving Code Academy a try in the first instance. It's free,
there's no set up on your computer needed (it's all done through their
website) and it guides you through.

It's how I started learning when I was trying to do it around my job, I
eventually left to work on learning to code full time.

------
pookieinc
What motivates me is far from what I do for 8 hours a day (sitting behind a
desk and writing code).

Honestly, it's the belief that communities, at the level of grassroots, can be
empowered to be further engaged in the social discourses of their society. I
have a strong belief that while our government powers are playing politics,
families who are living in impoverished neighborhoods can be encouraged to be
active agents of change and can move populations. I'm working with a couple
non-profit organizations (that are around the world) that do exactly this and
the results we see are incredibly encouraging and endearing. Not only are
youth getting excited and working in their communities, their siblings and
parents are also getting involved. If it wasn't for this work (of which I
spend hours _after work_ partaking in), I don't know what would motivate me.

EDIT: Just to clarify, this empowerment comes through education at the level
of the neighborhood. Looking at this practically, it means training our
younger future generations and providing them the tools they need to succeed
(getting a good education in school, living a moral life, being a good
citizen, etc). All this through a process of learning at the level of the
organizations I'm working with.

------
jetti
Knowledge. I received my Masters in CS last year and am thinking of either
getting another one or a PhD. I didn't need my Masters as I probably could
have gotten a dev job without it (my BS was in Economics) but there were
things I wanted to learn (PL theory and Compilers) so I did it. I would love
to be able to do one or more PhDs full time so I could just absorb as much
information as I could in specialized areas.

The other thing that motivates me is financial freedom. It doesn't necessarily
mean making tons of money but making enough to cover expenses and not have to
worry about a budget. I'm currently working on a side project/business that I
hope will at least cover my mortgage and student loans each month. I have low
expectations but that is what I hope and if I get more than that it would be
great.

------
anigbrowl
Curiosity. I need to know the underlying structure of things, and the
metastructures that arise from their structural interrelations.

------
Cozumel
I am motivated by the desire to crush my enemies, to see them driven before
me, and to hear the lamentations of their women.

~~~
Mz
We need an update for this saying that is gender neutral or that reverses the
sexes. It's a great saying, but it is deeply rooted in traditional gender
roles to the max.

~~~
Skunkleton
I am motivated by the desire to crush my enemies, to see them driven before
me, and to hear the lamentations of their children?

~~~
Mz
Um, no. I don't think _children_ works. Tossing out possibilities (that
probably all suck):

Chattel property? Loved ones? Lovers? Spouses?

(But thanks! I never am sure how to hit the right conversational note on hn.)

~~~
yarou
"Lovers" can work. It's unassailable.

~~~
Skunkleton
I don't like that it rhymes.

------
allenz
I'm motivated by all aspects of my life:

1\. I want to explore the world: hear people's stories, learn new ideas,
experience all the diversity and craziness there is in the world, have moments
of childlike wonder.

2\. I want to help people: victims of war, families in poverty, people who did
not get a childhood or a fulfilling education, people who are not able to
achieve their full potential.

3\. I want to see myself grow. I'm curious as to how my abilities, my
personality, and my outlook on life will change in the next decades.

4\. I look forward to meeting the love of my life, raising a family, and
participating in a close-knit, medium-sized community.

I may not achieve all of these things, and I will likely be have regrets and
dissatisfactions, but on the whole, life has been a worthwhile journey, and I
expect the future will be worthwhile as well.

------
dakull
In the context of work: the act of “creation” i.e. abstracting some reality
into tiny encoded parts that elegantly fit together to perform something
useful.

In the context of life: it does derive itself from work i.e. I need work -
other than that I don't believe in perfect balance, there's no such thing in
life.

I'm usually trying to be an active nihilist i.e. less a passive one as much as
I can. So I guess something in the realm of a “quest” of knowledge - the known
unknowns and the yummy unknown unknowns.

------
andrew_eit
Curiosity and the desire to do things which I enjoy. I also like learning and
1 year ago moved to Germany. I now speak exclusively in German as an IT
consultant here after only 2 years of learning.

That said. I don't put too much pressure on myself. I have goals but I'm also
human and don't want to take life too seriously. I don't think it necessarily
matters if I reach all of them or just a few. I see them as simply markers of
directions I could move in that might make for some sort of exciting
experience that lets me experience the joys and sometimes struggles of being
alive.

------
joe_fro
I like building things, not just code. I think it's a sense of personal
satisfaction from creating something where there was nothing and sharing it
with others. Most of the time nobody cares, so it's always nice when somebody
else likes it.

Lately I've been mixing relaxation music that's really just royalty free
recordings of nature and royalty free piano music.

------
DrNuke
Love, mainly. The best of dopes.

------
osrec
Facilitating better living and working for the people around me; that's what
motivates me, and it's why I became an engineer. Seeing something I've built
help someone makes me ridiculously happy!

------
brlewis
2\. Changing the world outside myself to have more of what I value.

1\. Changing the inside of myself to have more of what I value.

If you're looking for more motivation, start with self-examination of what it
is you deeply value.

------
cm2012
Taking care of my dependents, which makes me feel capable and fulfilled.

------
eli_gottlieb
Love, happiness, curiosity, and a seething rage at seeing the world around me
deprived of those vital things on so regular a basis.

I make no claim to being a healthy or normal individual.

------
pb1
Ferrari 458 italia

------
usgroup
I've no idea ... obsessive personality I guess. I don't have a choice but to
be motivated ... a bit like dogs and balls.

------
hbt
The belief that tomorrow will be better than today. That progress is being
made.

------
cosmolev
it's interesting

------
askreddit
Probably more appropriate for /r/askreddit

------
bsvalley
death

~~~
yitchelle
This reminds me of the Steve Jobs' commencement speech at Stanford.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc)

------
pryelluw
My family.

------
yarou
Lust.

------
miguelrochefort
Efficiency

------
JohnLeTigre
solving problems

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mathgenius
The beautiful.

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rollinDyno
Why should I declare my motivations publicly?

~~~
blackflame7000
Because we wouldn't know if you were lying anyways

