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Alright, I'll help you understand what I'm trying to imply with the TODO list of ideas. It's fairly close to what you mean by intrinsic motivation to work on so

Alright, I'll help you understand what I'm trying to imply with the TODO list of ideas. It's fairly close to what you mean by intrinsic motivation to work on something. Except, sometimes, I, get different ideas to build something fun when I'm already busy with something I thought of as cool a while back. For example, right now, I'm working on something full-time on what I thought would be really cool to build in January but along the way, I thought of other things as well, some of those require more time than just a weekend. I tend to write those ideas down instead of passing on them or getting involved in them and abandoning my current projects. Keep doing this for long enough and you'll end up with a long list of ideas over a period of time so that's what I was referring to with the TODO list of ideas, ideas that really intrigue me, stuff I want to build but currently don't have the time for. I'm assuming this happens to other developers as well, at least, some of my friends do this. We even have a shared list of what we want to build together.

chris_j 5y ago
Cool thanks for expanding. That TODO list of ideas makes sense now. Am I correct in understanding that finding the time/energy to actually do something with your ideas is the limiting factor for you? Or is it something else?
- tr1ll10nb1ll 5y ago
  Yeah, you're correct with that observation.
  - chris_j 5y ago
    I probably shouldn't be surprised to hear that because my experiences are similar and I understand that this is the case for most people. My advice would be to work on projects that you are intrinsically motivated to work on. Don't work on a project in expectation of any reward if you complete it. Let yourself know that it's ok if you don't achieve all (or any) of what you might have set out to achieve in the first place. Myself, the side projects where I've achieved the most have been ones that give me a dopamine hit (basically games or things that are graphical, in my case, even though I've rarely been paid to work on those sorts of things in my career as a software engineer). If you're interested in reading up on motivation then there are few books that I've found really useful: - Drive by Daniel Pink talks about the different types of motivation (intrinsic vs extrinsic) and talks about the motivating factors of autonomy, mastery and purpose. There's a nice sketchnote video based on a talk by the author that did the rounds a few years ago https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgGhSOAtAyQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgGhSOAtAyQ that sums up the key points. - The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg talks about habits, how they form and how you can understand and hack them. - The Power Of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz talks about managing different aspects of your life in order to have energy to do the things that are important to you. Hopefully the above may be of some use to you. They have been very useful for me, particularly in understanding how counterintuitive human psychology is in some cases and in terms of understanding how some strategies that you may be tempted to use can be counterproductive.

chris_j 5y ago

Cool thanks for expanding. That TODO list of ideas makes sense now. Am I correct in understanding that finding the time/energy to actually do something with your ideas is the limiting factor for you? Or is it something else?

tr1ll10nb1ll 5y ago
Yeah, you're correct with that observation.
- chris_j 5y ago
  I probably shouldn't be surprised to hear that because my experiences are similar and I understand that this is the case for most people. My advice would be to work on projects that you are intrinsically motivated to work on. Don't work on a project in expectation of any reward if you complete it. Let yourself know that it's ok if you don't achieve all (or any) of what you might have set out to achieve in the first place. Myself, the side projects where I've achieved the most have been ones that give me a dopamine hit (basically games or things that are graphical, in my case, even though I've rarely been paid to work on those sorts of things in my career as a software engineer). If you're interested in reading up on motivation then there are few books that I've found really useful: - Drive by Daniel Pink talks about the different types of motivation (intrinsic vs extrinsic) and talks about the motivating factors of autonomy, mastery and purpose. There's a nice sketchnote video based on a talk by the author that did the rounds a few years ago https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgGhSOAtAyQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgGhSOAtAyQ that sums up the key points. - The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg talks about habits, how they form and how you can understand and hack them. - The Power Of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz talks about managing different aspects of your life in order to have energy to do the things that are important to you. Hopefully the above may be of some use to you. They have been very useful for me, particularly in understanding how counterintuitive human psychology is in some cases and in terms of understanding how some strategies that you may be tempted to use can be counterproductive.