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Community Is Motivation on Tap
- kixiQu 1y agoA fun idea, but I'd like to read someone writing not about the concept, but about their experience trying to consciously shape their participation in community to help them achieve their goals. How well does that work in practice? What's awkward about it, and what goes smoothly? When does it break down? Which interests map well onto this approach?
- jeanlucas 1y agoBeen "doing" community for 10 years from technical to leadership communities (focused on Brazilian CTOs). I can answer the question above if you'd like to know. I don't have much written, but I think about it daily.
- 9283409232 1y agoI have a simple question. Is it worth building a community? Outside of being paid to do it, is it worth doing? Seems like more trouble than it's worth to me.
- jeanlucas 1y agowhen it's a community of practice, yeah, I think it absolutely is worth it. it’s where I learn the most. Talking to people facing similar challenges, hearing how they approach things, learning new tech, and new businesses models. It also builds networking and creates opportunities. That said, I don’t think everyone needs to build community. Most people won’t, and that’s fine; but just participating makes (and helping the organizer whenever you can) is good
- simplify 1y agoWhat are the most common issue/mistakes that make communities fizzle out?
- jeanlucas 1y agoCommunities are basically promises: you create expectations, and they usually fizzle out when that commitment isn’t met. Same applies to events. Most people think structure or rules keep a community alive, but they are just tools. What keeps communities alive is just being there for the users and in the channel they are used to talk and be active (whatsapp in my case) Also when leading a community it is important to step back. Let others speak/ to leave them be. It is easy to "monopolize the mic" but the real magic happens when others start owning the space. Your role as a community organizer is to create a stage for others. if you ever moderated an IRC channel, it’s the same energy: keep the lights on, be present, but don’t over-control :^)
- ethan_smith 1y agoCheck out "Atomic Habits" by James Clear - he documents precisely this approach with numerous case studies of how community accountability transformed people's habits across various domains.
- j7ake 1y agoAlso suggests 100% WFH is not as good as some weekly face to face time if part of the goal is to keep people motivated and disciplined
- bluefirebrand 1y agoWFH does not mean you can't have face to face in today's age
- tcoff91 1y agoI feel like I grind harder if anything when I work from home. Just because you aren’t physically in the same place doesn’t mean there isn’t community. I do occasionally do onsites that are valuable for community building so perhaps it’s more 98% wfh
- HPsquared 1y agoHonestly I go to the office and it's just full of people chattering about non-work things and generally not doing work. It's demotivating. WFH days I'm far more focused and productive.
- tcoff91 1y agoAlso open floor plans suck
- leoc 1y agoObligatory Schwarzenegger: "The kind of people who train alongside you in a gym makes a difference. If you are surrounded by people who are serious and train with a lot of intensity, it's easier for you to do the same thing. But it can be pretty hard to really blast your muscles while the people around you are just going through the motions. That is why good bodybuilders tend to congregate in certain gyms. By having the example of other serious bodybuilders constantly in front of you, you will train that much harder. That is what made Joe Gold's original gym in Venice, California such a great place—a small gym with just enough equipment, but where you would constantly be rubbing shoulders with the great bodybuilders against whom I had the privilege of competing-like Franco Columbu, Ed Corney, Dave Draper, Robby Robinson, Frank Zane, Sergio Oliva, and Ken Waller. Nowadays, it's rare to find that many champions in the same place, but if you aren't sharing the gym floor with great bodybuilders like Flex Wheeler, Shawn Ray, Nasser El Sonbaty, or Dorian Yates, it can be very motivating if there are pictures or posters of these individuals on the walls or championship trophies displayed. In 1980, training at World Gym for my final Mr. Olympia competition, I showed up at the gym at seven o'clock one morning to work out and stepped out on the sundeck for a moment. Suddenly the sun came through the clouds. It was so beautiful I lost all my motivation to train. I thought maybe I would go to the beach instead. I came up with every excuse in the book-the most persuasive being that I had trained hard the day before with the powerful German bodybuilder Jusup Wilkosz, so I could lay back today—but then I heard weights being clanged together inside the gym and I saw Wilkosz working his abs, Ken Waller doing shoulders, veins standing out all over his upper body, Franco Columbu blasting away, benching more than 400 pounts, Samir Bannout punishing his biceps with heavy Curls. Everywhere I looked there was some kind of hard, sweaty training going on, and I knew that I couldn't afford not to train if I was going to compete against these champions. Their example sucked me in, and now I was looking forward to working, anticipating the pleasure of pitting my muscles against heavy iron. By the end of that session I had the best pump I could imagine, and an almost wasted morning had turned into one of the best workouts of my life. If I hadn't been there at World Gym, with those other bodybuilders to inspire and motivate me, I doubt that day would have ended up being so productive. Even today, when I'm training for other reason, such as getting into top shape for a movie role, or just trying to stay in shape, I absorb energy from people working out around me. That's why I still like to go to gyms where bodybuilders are training for competition. Even today, after all this time, it still inspires me." p. 87 in the 1999 edition of /The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding/, by Schwarzenegger and Bill Dobbins. http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0684857219/ http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0684857219/
- DaveZale 1y agoI like to follow Arnold Schwazenegger's Pump Club free newsletter, but not because I am a body builder. You're right, it's a community where you get solid no-nonsense advice, like, ditch the supplements except creatine and maybe whey protein or vegetable protein. At the same time, he emphasizes building desired habits, to the point where thinking is not required anymore for that purpose. He even goes as far as saying your own brain can be your worst enemy, it wants you to be comfortable. If I say any more, I'd be overthinking it. It's a good motivational community for fitness in general. Just like you said, specialty communities for specialist advice. But the google news feed I get just scrambles my brains. They've profiled me for 30+ years, and they feed me nonsense now, because I answered many of those questions many years ago. AI is not good at forgetting.
- RangerScience 1y agoNote: many neurospicy brains do not get the thing where something happens on “automatic”. If you’ve tried to “build a habit” and never got to the “now it’s automatic” stage, don’t beat yourself up about it. AFAIK, we have to rely on patterns and explicit attention and reinforcement (“everyday I do this, I have a good day, so now I’ve got more motivation every day to do it”)
- vjvjvjvjghv 1y agoFor me it’s often that once a habit gets automatic, I forget about it and stop doing it. My habits are mostly formed by things I fear and think about a lot like getting out of shape and fat, going broke or dying lonely.
- sandspar 1y agoThis seems implausible. People with mild mental illnesses are still animals. All animals can be conditioned. When you leave a building, do you exit through the door or the window? I assume the door.
- pjerem 1y agoExcept it’s harder and harder the more you age. And it’s true for animals too.
- aeblyve 1y agoAlso applicable to living alone vs. living with someone else imo.
- worldsayshi 1y agoI feel like I am constantly looking for relevant communities but I find it really really hard to find anything. Maybe I live in a too small city or something. I suspect that my current social media addiction tendencies is a compensation for not finding good communities for my interests.
- santana16 1y agoYou are 100% right. Finding a good one is incredibly hard. Usually requires a capable and dedicated person to run (which are very hard to come by).
- worldsayshi 1y ago> Usually requires a capable and dedicated person to run This makes me think that there's some friction to this that could be alleviated. Like having more of and more diverse third places. I used to be part of a number of theatre groups. Those groups did often have dedicated and capable singular people that made it work. But other times it was more of a group effort. Often the most dedicated people arose to the occasion once the context was there, because they had a bit more intrinsic motivation for what we did than others. And in some of the cases we got a lot of help from various institutions for admin and getting a place to practice, which certainly lowered the friction.
- HPsquared 1y agoThe hardest, best way is to build it yourself.
- mmcromp 1y agoI'm not so sure. You'd still need to figure out how to find and attract the people you want to be around while keeping the people you don't want out. Itd probably be easier to keep trying different avenues until you find a group you vibe with
- beshrkayali 1y agoI think the author is overselling the benefits of communities a bit. Sure, groups can boost motivation through approval-seeking and availability bias, but they can also trap you in groupthink or misaligned priorities. I’d say the Brawl Stars grind example (despite author disliking the game) isn’t really a win. Communities can hijack your goals, pulling you toward their agenda instead of yours. Overreliance on them risks eroding self-discipline when the group fades. Instead, define your goals clearly and use communities sparingly, for knowledge exchange, not validation. Relying on communities too much can leave you stuck in an echo chamber, chasing approval over purpose.
- santana16 1y agoSometimes moving somewhere is better than not moving at all.
- bravetraveler 1y agoIf not careful, others will have you moving for them. Despite the arguable personal (or collective) benefit, it is manipulation. To what end? Undeterminable. Good to rely, bad to be dependent.
- jxjnskkzxxhx 1y agoI don't disagree with the benefits of community. But the thing he describes with StarCraft Vs whatever the brainrot game is can be explained differently. I think the author likes the idea of liking StarCraft, but doesn't actually like playing it. Brainrot on the other hand is engineered to be addictive. Surely if he LIKED playing StarCraft he wouldn't have to be searching for motivation. Personally, I know that in my life I only need motivation for the things I don't like. The things I like I just naturally do a lot. One insight that I've had is that people often don't really understand what they like and don't like. How many times have you heard "oh I wanna be a writer" "ok what have you written?" "I haven't written anything yet because I'm not a writer yet." These people like the idea of having achieved some end result, but they don't enjoy the process, and aren't even aware that the two are different. In fact some times I think the word "to like" isn't that useful as it doesn't map well into anything in the mind. I think perhaps we should differentiate between the ideas of "things I planned to do", "things that I did", and "things that when I do make me feel such and such internally". If you re read the post with these ideas in mind, it makes a lot more sense what's happening: the author planned to do one thing and did another. You no longer need to invoke strange ideas like "I need community to give me the motivation to do the thing I already like doing because without motivation I do things I don't like".
- misschresser 1y agoMy experience is similar enough to the author's though. I was a Masters level dueler in starcraft2 and had a huge passion for the game, and a huge part of that was that the community was exciting at that time. I participated in the subreddit, I wrote articles, I casted games on the side. My friends played the game. I eventually had a go/no-go moment where I could've kept pouring myself into the community, potentially worked with folks like Artosis and Tasteless, etc. But all signals were that the community was dwindling and blizzard wasn't properly invested in the game, which lowered my motivation a lot over time. So my decision was No.
- HPsquared 1y agoThere's liking the process, then there's liking the overall experience (including end result). Like doing exercise or whatever.
- vorgol 1y agoBut be sure to join a non-toxic community.
- photochemsyn 1y ago> "Seeking approval is in our genes." Sure, but so is seeking food. Not controlling one's desire to seek food leads to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, etc. Not moderating one's desire for applause leads to similar issues, more mental neurosis than physical disabilities, but equally harmful in the long run. > "Looking at successful athletes, founders, musicians, game speedrunners, or overachievers in any area, they seem to have unlimited motivation to do loads of tedious work or practice." That's also part of many people's marketing and promotion strategies: "I grind all the time". In the real world, random chance, parental resources, or other 'non-self-made-person' factors often play significant roles in apparent success stories. Since people are seeking approval, and the overall society celebrates the 'up-by-your-bootstraps' narrative, people will sell this narrative because they want that approval - addiction to the applause button. I've seem that desperation for approval that seems rather common in the social influencer world before - in the eyes of a junkie hunting their next fix. This isn't to say some level of community isn't important and useful - taking a course in a technical subject where you show up at an appointed time with other people and then present your project at the end of the course, that's all good and motivating - but if the only goal is to get more applause, that's mental illness.
- em-bee 1y agoi always felt that it didn't matter what job i had on as long as i was part of a good team where we could support and motivate each other even if the tasks themselves were boring. in fact a good team is the only thing i find motivating at all. no work is interesting if i have to do it all by myself or of i have to fight teammates or office politics.
- divan 1y agoIt's well studied topic in psychology of motivation. In the main theory of human motivation, Self-Determination Theory (SDT), it's one of the three main predictors of motivation change. It's called "relatedness" – the need to feel connected to others (others two are autonomy and competence). These three function almost like a slider that you can increase or decrease in order to influence yours(or others) motivation in your particular domain or situation. It's one of the life-changing theories in psychology. Similar to "game theory" you don't need to get deep into it, but rather learn the fundamentals to start seeing world (mostly motivation/wellbeing of you and others) differently.
- Pent 1y agoauthor likes community over any given hobby or game, they should reflect on that and consider that it's all centered around group-activities for them