There are other ways to stay motivated than simply coding away on the next great application.

Find an argument. Find a topic that you passionately agree with. Better yet, find one you unabashedly disagree with. Then go speak about it. Explain why your way works in intricate detail.

Get involved in a local Meetup.com group or apply to speak at a conference. Don’t think you’re not good enough or ready to be heard; if you can find a topic you’re passionate about, you’re ready. You don’t have to be a rock-star programming hero, the one with the 50,000 Twitter followers and the über-successful business. For right now, you can just be yourself. What’s wonderful about the web community is that your voice is built, first, on substance. If you have something to say, you can be heard.

If the very thought of speaking is making your palms sweat, then write. Writing gives you the chance to fumble your words 1,000 times before you finally get it just perfect. You can start with a blog or contact other more established bloggers to write guest posts. You’ll be surprised how receptive the community at-large is.

In need of an argument? Here are few polarizing topics that might get you started:

• Is it ever OK to use <TABLE />s in your HTML markup for anything other than tabular content? Many markup purists say no. Maybe you can say yes and explain why.

• Is Adobe Flash still relevant in the rich web application space, or has enough advancement been made with HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript to make Flash irrelevant?

• Are object-relational mappers (ORMs) better to use than raw SQL? Many would argue that ORMs are almost always inefficient when you make more complex database queries. Others argue that the simplicity ORMs provide to the developer is worth the trade-off.

• Is Model-View-Controller architecture the best way to architect all applications? Some would say that it’s a bloated architecture and simply using a standard page model works better.

• How important is usability testing and A/B testing for web applications? Some argue it’s overhyped and the effort of running studies of your application isn’t worth the up-front cost and time.

As we’ve seen throughout this chapter, motivation can come in many forms. It doesn’t have to live just within the boundaries of code but can also be how we approach our jobs when we’re away from the desk. Even a good argument can keep our passion running high.

If you can stay motivated throughout the course of your development career, you’ll get productive too. Let’s find out how we can turn our motivation into sustained productivity.