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Ask HN: What motivates you in life?
- blackflame7000 10y agoI am motivated by the desire to never say the phrase, "I wish I would have ... when I was younger"
- IpV8 10y agoThat sounds super stressfull
- blackflame7000 10y agoIts 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.
- miguelrochefort 10y agoyolo
- blackflame7000 10y agoI always found it ironic that people would say Yolo right before attempting a dangerous stunt that could instantly end that one life.
- nugget 10y agoSame here. Avoidance of regret.
- anigbrowl 10y agoCuriosity. I need to know the underlying structure of things, and the metastructures that arise from their structural interrelations.
- RUG3Y 10y agoI'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 10y agoEven 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 10y agoIt's always fun to play with cheats on.
- Cozumel 10y agoI am motivated by the desire to crush my enemies, to see them driven before me, and to hear the lamentations of their women.
- rinchik1 10y agolol http://1.media.collegehumor.cvcdn.com/64/33/39bee4f33728e1f54402d858540d373c-weekend-update-high-five.gif http://1.media.collegehumor.cvcdn.com/64/33/39bee4f33728e1f5...
- Mz 10y agoWe 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 10y agoI am motivated by the desire to crush my enemies, to see them driven before me, and to hear the lamentations of their children?
- Mz 10y agoUm, 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 10y ago"Lovers" can work. It's unassailable.
- Skunkleton 10y agoI don't like that it rhymes.
- 10y ago
- cm2012 10y agoTaking care of my dependents, which makes me feel capable and fulfilled.
- bsvalley 10y agodeath
- yitchelle 10y agoThis reminds me of the Steve Jobs' commencement speech at Stanford. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc
- DrNuke 10y agoLove, mainly. The best of dopes.
- miguelrochefort 10y agoEfficiency
- u42p37yYYRjvhD 10y agomemes
- eli_gottlieb 10y agoLove, 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.
- roxaneoriel 10y agoHi 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!
- blackflame7000 10y agoI guess off topic discussions are allowed. I didn't know.
- dragonwriter 10y agoSome do, but either way that has no relevance to whether some working as an executive assistant to a CIO would have a reason to take up programming.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- yarou 10y agoI gather you're interested in web development. The best advice I'd give is to pick up a good JS book and build several projects to get a feel for the language.
- anthony_franco 10y agoIt would depend on your learning style. If you're a visual learner I'd get a $15 Udemy course during one of their sales. Looks at the example projects made, the reviews from the students. If any seem interesting then just dive right in.
- julsonl 10y agoI'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.
- cosmolev 10y agoit's interesting
- rollinDyno 10y agoWhy should I declare my motivations publicly?
- blackflame7000 10y agoBecause we wouldn't know if you were lying anyways
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- JohnLeTigre 10y agosolving problems
- pookieinc 10y agoWhat 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.
- osrec 10y agoFacilitating 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!
- mathgenius 10y agoThe beautiful.
- faitswulff 10y agoMotivation 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 10y ago>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.
- hbt 10y agoThe belief that tomorrow will be better than today. That progress is being made.
- andrew_eit 10y agoCuriosity 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.
- aml183 10y agoI 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/080701429X https://www.amazon.com/Mans-Search-Meaning-Viktor-Frankl/dp/...
- pella 10y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man's_Search_for_Meaning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man's_Search_for_Meaning
- brlewis 10y ago2. 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.
- yarou 10y agoLust.
- usgroup 10y agoI've no idea ... obsessive personality I guess. I don't have a choice but to be motivated ... a bit like dogs and balls.
- joe_fro 10y agoI 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.
- pb1 10y agoFerrari 458 italia
- pb1 10y agoFerrari 458 italia
- allenz 10y agoI'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.
- askreddit 10y agoProbably more appropriate for /r/askreddit
- pryelluw 10y agoMy family.
- dakull 10y agoIn 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.
- jetti 10y agoKnowledge. 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.