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"But what I was looking for was something that I could do for a living that was also driven by this type of motivation: the intrinsic kind." Read the study I l

"But what I was looking for was something that I could do for a living that was also driven by this type of motivation: the intrinsic kind." Read the study I linked in my other response. Doing something "for a living" means you expect to be rewarded for it. According to the study, if you do something that intrinsically rewards you, you will eventually lose motivation to do it when you expect to be rewarded for it. You're setting yourself up for failure. I experienced this same phenomena almost 15 years ago. About 2-3 years after I started programming professionally I hated it. I kept at it for 10 years, being miserable most of that time, then I changed to a management track. I fucking hate management. It's a mix of babysitting adults and coping with regular disappointment. Nevertheless my life overall is much better. Don't, however, misconstrue my hatred of management to mean that I do my job poorly. The hatred actually makes me reflect on myself and my skills, and I constantly seek to improve them. Hatred is also a source of passion. Use it wisely. I have zero expectations of my work and there is no reward that would make this work meaningful. I have removed my career's power to bring me into existential crisis. My advice: don't do something you love for a living, and/or learn to remove your occupation's ability to contribute to your self-worth.

DVassallo 7y ago
I’m very familiar with that research. I read “Punished by Rewards” by Alfie Kohn and “Drive” by Dan Pink, and they both cite the same studies and make the same arguments. I was already operating like you are when I was an employee. (I wrote another blog post about it.) I had already mentally ignored all rewards and extrinsic motivators and just focused on doing the best work I can (something fully in my control). I believe there is a nuance you’re not seeing when you say “... doing something for a living means you expect to be rewarded for it. According to the study, if you do something that intrinsically rewards you, you will eventually lose motivation to do it when you expect to be rewarded for it.” The intent is what matters. You lose intrinsic motivation if you do something for the reward. But you don’t lose it if you do it for its own sake. Running & growing a business is something that I believe I’m intrinsically motivated to do. The money from that activity is not the same type of reward (dangling of a carrot) that the research you cited talks about. The books I mentioned talk about why that happens: the carrot & stick approach feel manipulative to whoever is subject to then, which in turn cause loss of interest and lack of cooperation. When working for myself I won’t be subjected to any of that.

DVassallo 7y ago

I’m very familiar with that research. I read “Punished by Rewards” by Alfie Kohn and “Drive” by Dan Pink, and they both cite the same studies and make the same arguments. I was already operating like you are when I was an employee. (I wrote another blog post about it.) I had already mentally ignored all rewards and extrinsic motivators and just focused on doing the best work I can (something fully in my control). I believe there is a nuance you’re not seeing when you say “... doing something for a living means you expect to be rewarded for it. According to the study, if you do something that intrinsically rewards you, you will eventually lose motivation to do it when you expect to be rewarded for it.” The intent is what matters. You lose intrinsic motivation if you do something for the reward. But you don’t lose it if you do it for its own sake. Running & growing a business is something that I believe I’m intrinsically motivated to do. The money from that activity is not the same type of reward (dangling of a carrot) that the research you cited talks about. The books I mentioned talk about why that happens: the carrot & stick approach feel manipulative to whoever is subject to then, which in turn cause loss of interest and lack of cooperation. When working for myself I won’t be subjected to any of that.