Motivation is the driving force which help causes us to achieve goals. Motivation is said to be intrinsic or extrinsic. The term is generally used for humans but it can also be used to describe the causes for animal behavior as well.
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How to motivate co-workers to write unit-tests?
We're working on a large product which has been in production for about 5 years. The codebase is.. erm.. working. Not really well but it is working. New features are thrown into production and tested ...
52
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1answer
1k views
How do you motivate peers to become better developers? [closed]
In my experience there seems to be two kinds of developers (if we simplify matters a great deal of course).
On the one hand we have the developers, who may do a perfectly acceptable job, but who do ...
38
votes
20answers
3k views
How do you stay motivated for hobby projects? [closed]
I started seriously programming as a hobbiest, student and then intern about 4 years ago and I've always done small projects on the side as a learning exercise. Schools over now though, and I spend ...
31
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11answers
2k views
Active steps to prevent a burn-out?
What steps are you taking to actively prevent a burn-out? Is it really working?
30
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21answers
2k views
How do you tackle really bizarre errors that keep you puzzled for more than 10 hours? [closed]
You know them, those errors that make NO sense. Where it seems like a gremlin just jumped deep inside your chips and messed up something. Do you take a walk, write stuff, call an uncle? I need help!!
30
votes
5answers
2k views
How do you get past the Analysis to Paralysis when working on a new project?
I've been struggling with how to get my project going. I've got an old software package that is in need of desparate rewrite. I haven't compiled the source code since 2004. It still sells, it's stable ...
27
votes
7answers
2k views
Are passionate programmers more prone to burnout than others? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Active steps to prevent a burn-out?
I am a software professional with around 6 years of experience. I was a developer initially but later moved onto consulting roles ...
26
votes
8answers
790 views
What do you do to remain productive when working on your own?
I find working in isolation, on a piece of code that won't be seen by anyone else for weeks, draining. I'm looking for ideas to try to keep myself productive and motivated.
What do you do to remain ...
22
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11answers
2k views
What is the motivation that makes you to stick with current job? [closed]
There are lot of people who are still working in the same company for more than 10 years. What is the motivation that makes you to stick with current job ?
22
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11answers
878 views
I've had some free time at work during maintenance releases, but all I do is surf the Internet
I'm really having trouble with this, since it is the perfect opportunity to learn something new, begin a personal project... essentially do just about anything, but all I do is surf the Internet. I ...
20
votes
10answers
694 views
Motivating developers in a project perceived as dull?
As a manager, I can't always end up generating work that'd be cutting edge. Some of the projects do run on maintenance mode, and generate a healthy free cash flow for the company.
As a developer ...
19
votes
11answers
786 views
How To Explain To My Dad What I have Programmed [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
My Dad is impatient with the pace of my learning to program. What do I do?
I am 14 and have been studying programming for 4 months now (3 months Python, 1 Month of ...
18
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10answers
1k views
Is it possible to speed- read code well?
Sometimes we have huge code listings to deal with, and I'm curious as to how the advanced, highly skilled programmers read code. And I'll say with an emphasis on debugging and finding issues.
17
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15answers
950 views
Motivating yourself to actually write the code after you've designed something
Does it happen only to me or is this familiar to you too?
It's like this: You have to create something; a module, a feature, an entire application... whatever. It is something interesting that you ...
16
votes
10answers
579 views
Inspiring People
So I work with a few people that I feel are intelligent but don't seem to be working out well. After working with them for a while I have seen the flashes of brilliance but mostly I see a reliance on ...
16
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7answers
452 views
Could an internal rep, voting and badges encourage good programming practices?
Just thinking out aloud - we programmers love all this voting/badges/rep stuff so could a scheme like this be introduced into a companies code review process to encourage better coding.
Something ...
15
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21answers
1k views
If you were the manager of a team of 25 developers, how would you motivate them?
Imagine yourself hired by a new startup backed with few millions coming from venture capitalists.
Your mission: organize the development of the next killer app.
25 developers is too much to take ...
15
votes
10answers
509 views
Project In A Week / development bootcamp
Our team is thinking of doing a "Project In A Week" (bootcamp), and I'm interested to know if anyone else has experience of doing this or has any advice?
The idea behind it is to get away from the ...
15
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7answers
1k views
how to keep yourself motivated? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
How do you motivate yourself to program (when you'd really rather be doing something else)?
sometimes self -learning a particular language from books can make u feel ...
13
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14answers
1k views
Feeling of Despair before programming? [closed]
When I have a programming assignment or some program that I have to start on I sometimes have this feeling of despair, I just do whatever to starting and then I just start feeling like crap, and that ...
13
votes
6answers
810 views
Ideas to get you programming mojo back? [closed]
I've been a professional programmer for many many years (20 years) and now I've lost interest, at the moment I have trouble even knocking out a few 100 lines of simple stuff. It will take me 3-4 days ...
13
votes
8answers
817 views
How can I stay focused and motivated on a project?
I'm working on starting my own software development business, but I've noticed that I have major issues getting projects out by their deadlines, and in general getting them out of the "almost-done" ...
12
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10answers
2k views
How to make Classic ASP interesting if you are stuck with it?
I used to work on a really small outsourcing company (4 programmers and the boss), then when the stress and the frequent long shifts made the situation unbearable I made the switch to a better paid ...
11
votes
14answers
6k views
Lost Interest in Programming [closed]
I am a computer science student currently in my 2nd year of bachelors. My problem is pretty straight forward yet still so far has not been self-resolvable. It is simply is that I am tired of ...
11
votes
8answers
649 views
Where do you find motivation when working for someone else? [closed]
This answer to one of my recent questions got me thinking about something that's been (mostly subconsciously until recently) troubling me throughout my programming career.
Basically: where do you ...
10
votes
6answers
684 views
How to keep up your motivation all day long [closed]
This might be a bit subjective and maybe that's a problem here, but I'm asking my question anyway :)
Also, I found similiar questions (but none, answered my question), so you don't need to remind me ...
9
votes
6answers
640 views
How to motivate someone(including myself) not to give up learning something? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
How can I motivate myself to start learning more?
It's always interesting to learn something new - operating system, programming language, framework and so on. But the ...
9
votes
1answer
311 views
Exploiting creativity with “free time”
Some companies have discovered, to their surprise and profit, that programmers are very creative people. I think of Google and Atlassian, for example, who allow regular (monthly, I believe) "free ...
8
votes
6answers
503 views
Motivation for a development team?
In two and half months I have successfully brought a team from the brink of doom to being a successful development team. The project is a using new .net technologies (MVC, EF), has new tools, and the ...
8
votes
7answers
732 views
Psychological problems - overcoming shyness and boredom? [closed]
I have been programing for about 11 months. I've learned some things,and evaded some. I know some advanced things and I don't know some basic stuff. I easily get bored with programing when I program ...
8
votes
5answers
490 views
How do you keep enthusiam up when working on an overwhelming project?
When I'm working on a complex / large programming project and I get overwhelmed or lost, I often lose motivation and just don't have the energy to really dig into the problem once again to figure it ...
8
votes
2answers
743 views
Where should I start on a large concurrent programming assignment?
My task is to implement a distributed semaphore system (links to description) and an application for it. I will be using Java sockets, and it will use watermark arrays and priority queues (not sure ...
8
votes
4answers
254 views
Sharing programming fees with a fellow software developer
My question relates to how I should share the fees paid by clients to me and a fellow programmer, both of whom are freelancers.
I've thought of a few options, but I'm in a dilemma as to which one ...
8
votes
6answers
284 views
If I finish one project, should I wait until the next day to start another one or begin right away? [closed]
There are some days where I feel like I get a lot done. I've finished deploying my most recent project and cleared everything from my TODO list, and still have some time left in my day. I DO have a ...
8
votes
6answers
496 views
Motivation for programming in a specific language
I'm 21 and didn't go to University and hence completely self-taught from tutorials, screencasts, books etc, but when it came to the decision of what languages to specifically learn, I thought, what's ...
7
votes
5answers
335 views
Keeping going, tough or not, finding things to keep motivated? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
How do you motivate yourself to program (when you'd really rather be doing something else)?
I started a project that I knew was going to be tough and difficult, but ...
7
votes
4answers
498 views
Is listing developer's full names in splash screen or about box still a widely spread and desirable practice?
Just like in the closing credits of movies, some software vendors list the full names of the team that worked on the piece of software you are using.
They are usually displayed in the splash screen ...
7
votes
2answers
229 views
How to learn from open source
I see this problem quite often. I like a certain value proposition of an open-source project. I try out the basic tutorials. Great. It works! But if I move on to more complex problems, I spend hours ...
6
votes
8answers
2k views
I love programming but never get projects started
I read this question and the most voted answer and said to myself "Those things are what I want to do! But why the heck I'm not doing it?"
The problem here is that I can't get anything started. I ...
6
votes
9answers
357 views
Managers X Motivation
As a programmer what do you think that is the thing that your manager does that mostly decreases your motivation?
My manager insists in blocking web content (this week was msdn content and Microsoft ...
6
votes
11answers
743 views
What is the reason most people have predetermined fear of programming & how should skilled make them fearless? [duplicate]
When it comes to programming most people (non-programmers or sys_eng) react like you're calling them to publicly speak in front of 10^6 people. How would you as a programmer convince someone at least ...
6
votes
4answers
550 views
How to fight absentmindedness [closed]
Do you have any problems with loss of concentration, constant relaxation, etc.? How do you solve this problem?
For example, when you are coding or learning something - You understand that it's ...
6
votes
4answers
475 views
How to enter flow experience for SW development? [closed]
What are your strategies to improve the flow experience when doing work?
5
votes
3answers
376 views
How do you prevent getting stuck in “research-mode” on a big project you're unfamiliar with?
I'm in a situation where there's a big project that I need a lot of background know-how to accomplish. yet I'm not moving fast enough in the research/study phase - and seeing myself off-track ...
5
votes
1answer
338 views
Why would I care about the asymptotic growth of the lower bound of the worst case time/space?
In mathematics, there are notations for asymptotic lower bounds, upper bounds, and tight (within-a-constant-factor) bounds. When describing the growth of functions in general, it makes sense that all ...
4
votes
4answers
320 views
Increase motivation in Our Project's Wiki with achievements?
We are currently running a mediawiki for our developers and most developers are not adding entries if they find something to document. Instead the mail it so a list containing all developers and most ...
4
votes
4answers
160 views
How to give the sense of a team that is fragmented based on projects?
The software engineering team of which I am part of is approximately 7 strong located in adjacent cubicles. 3 of us work on the same project but the rest are working on their own on different ...
4
votes
2answers
428 views
Began with iOS development, skipped CS, and getting hit hard at interviews? [duplicate]
I'll start with a brief background: my degree is in Recording Arts, so mainly audio engineering and stuff relating to the music industry, with some synthesis and stuff which was my link into coding ...
3
votes
5answers
2k views
How to motivate team for knowledge sharing sessions
I work in a team with wide range of expertise and experience. I have been trying to introduce weekly knowledge sharing sessions. Sessions of 30-60 min length where everybody gets a chance to present ...
3
votes
7answers
330 views
Corporate Framework: good or bad?
For a company that makes the same type of software over and over again, a custom MVP/MVC-like framework has been built. The obvious advantage is that it enables them to create their software faster, ...
