Chapter 3
Motivation

Regardless of how skilled you are, if you’re not motivated to write code, get out. Accountants might get through writing up a spreadsheet just fine without motivation; a cashier can get by his day without passion. But unmotivated developers kill a software project.

Motivation must be sustainable. It must be unearthed and cultivated continuously throughout development. What keeps you coding with passion at the beginning of a project might not be your source of inspiration at the finish line. Different things can get you going at different points in the process of building software.

Sustaining motivation isn’t unique to software. We see it all the time in the media. The star athlete who signed the big, multimillion-dollar contract now doesn’t give his full effort during a game. The band we grew up loving now starts cashing in by churning out mediocre albums. Many celebrities burn out even with the guarantee of ridiculous wealth. It’s proof that one thing alone isn’t enough to sustain motivation.

We need different ways to keep passion running through our veins. A food critic’s review keeps a chef on her toes. But so does a busy restaurant and a happy staff. The right tools also help sustain motivation. Show a great chef a quality set of knives and some fresh ingredients, and you’ll see amazing things happen. The motivation to run a restaurant comes from all different kinds of sources. So does building software.