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That kind of work is a whole lot less satisfying. Why would I want to deal with GitHub issues and fixing bugs when I could solve genuinely interesting problems?

by nv-vn 7y ago

sweetheart 7y ago
I’d wager that many don’t find it less satisfying, and maybe even more so, if only for the reason that solving an issue for a customer comes with the benefit of immediately and clearly improving the life of someone else. Solving curiosity-sating programming challenges doesn’t have the same social implication built in. Personally, I’d muuuuch rather work on a mundane problem that immediately improves someone’s day than an issue that is in and of itself more interesting, but also lacking the clear customer/user demand. This isn’t to say that solving beat programming challenges doesn’t improve anyone’s day, but the demand for the solution isn’t being made public and clear, which many people see as a necessary requirement for meaningful work.
- krageon 7y ago
  > the benefit of immediately and clearly improving the life of someone else More like the benefit of people being ungrateful for the effort you put in and then being hostile about your lack of continued motivation to solve their problems. All for absolutely zero financial gain, so the difference between that and a personal project is that you feel good for solving something, then bad because people hate you.
- tripzilch 7y ago
  > Personally, I’d muuuuch rather work on a mundane problem that immediately improves someone’s day than an issue that is in and of itself more interesting Don't get me wrong, helping people is great and I do in fact find it one of my greatest motivators, especially for things I would otherwise consider boring (or indeed, mundane). But something this is in and of itself more interesting? If you wouldn't rather work on that, doesn't that mean it's just not interesting enough? :) I guess everybody is different. Even though I have found that helping people is for me probably the strongest motivator there is, if there is one thing that can make me procrastinate on that, it's problems that are in and of itself more interesting :)

That kind of work is a whole lot less satisfying. Why would I want to deal with GitHub issues and fixing bugs when I could solve genuinely interesting problems?

by nv-vn 7y ago

That kind of work is a whole lot less satisfying. Why would I want to deal with GitHub issues and fixing bugs when I could solve genuinely interesting problems?

sweetheart 7y ago

I’d wager that many don’t find it less satisfying, and maybe even more so, if only for the reason that solving an issue for a customer comes with the benefit of immediately and clearly improving the life of someone else. Solving curiosity-sating programming challenges doesn’t have the same social implication built in. Personally, I’d muuuuch rather work on a mundane problem that immediately improves someone’s day than an issue that is in and of itself more interesting, but also lacking the clear customer/user demand. This isn’t to say that solving beat programming challenges doesn’t improve anyone’s day, but the demand for the solution isn’t being made public and clear, which many people see as a necessary requirement for meaningful work.

krageon 7y ago
> the benefit of immediately and clearly improving the life of someone else More like the benefit of people being ungrateful for the effort you put in and then being hostile about your lack of continued motivation to solve their problems. All for absolutely zero financial gain, so the difference between that and a personal project is that you feel good for solving something, then bad because people hate you.
tripzilch 7y ago
> Personally, I’d muuuuch rather work on a mundane problem that immediately improves someone’s day than an issue that is in and of itself more interesting Don't get me wrong, helping people is great and I do in fact find it one of my greatest motivators, especially for things I would otherwise consider boring (or indeed, mundane). But something this is in and of itself more interesting? If you wouldn't rather work on that, doesn't that mean it's just not interesting enough? :) I guess everybody is different. Even though I have found that helping people is for me probably the strongest motivator there is, if there is one thing that can make me procrastinate on that, it's problems that are in and of itself more interesting :)