What motivates us?

Posted by leigerleiger on 1275002618|%A, %e %B %Y, %H:%M

The surprising truth!

I found myself captivated by this, and watched it right through with the sound muted. Then I later discovered there's a talk that goes with it! :)

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James KanjoJames Kanjo 1275063468|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

The facts are interesting… but the “why” seems unanswered, and has me even more intrigued.

I guess the Wikidot Super-Guru community are a living example:

  • Do technical sophisticated stuff at work
  • Do it somewhere else in spare time
  • Give it away for free

Yep, I'm definitely proud of that!

λ James Kanjo | blog | photos | contact

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leigerleiger 1275099084|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Yes, I was thinking the same thing.

This part (5:00) is probably an important point and summarises most of what he's talking about:

If you don't pay enough... people won't be motivated.
Pay people enough to take the issue of money off the table.

So money might be a motivator, especially for simple situations, but for more complex situations there has to be a balance. Pay enough so that it's not an issue, but not too much that people don't bother working efficiently "Because I get paid plenty of money regardless of how hard I work!"

But technically, the reason "why" isn't covered.

And open source communities are amazing, especially Wikidot. Things seem to have closed up a lot more since Pieter is no longer part of the development team (and infrequent blog posts now), but it's a lot better than it used to be, and still an amazing project (which is part of the reason why I spend my time here).

★ STE - Wikidot Editor ★ Learn Java! ★

Last edited on 1275099389|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover By leiger + Show more
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