> But the fact that it has to generate value for others is what removes the fun. It could also be the one thing that makes your work meaningful. I don't think

> But the fact that it has to generate value for others is what removes the fun. It could also be the one thing that makes your work meaningful. I don't think the focus on value-for-others in itself is the fun-killer, but that there are diverging, in-congruent quotas to satisfy, that there are meetings that waste time, that design-by-committee makes the products dumb, that you lose autonomy, that there are more boring things to do than interesting things. I think everyone needs and wants validation to varying degrees, and providing value to others is the means to achieve that (also.. money). Some people are less motivated by this than others, granted, but cannot exist in a bubble without going nuts. Even if programming were just for ourselves, some other labor is geared to others.