Sunday, May 31, 2009

Motivation

Hmm. Just a few thoughts. I've been reading "How To Win Friends and Influence People" a fascinating and old (but not too dated) book. While going over how you need to find out want people want and motivate them using that it brought up an example where a little boy did not want to go to kindergarten. So the parents thought about the aspects of kindergarten that the child would like, in particular finger painting. And then finger painted and told the child about these things to make him excited about kindergarten, instead of dreading it.

Personally I'm a fairly negative person. I try to map out everything, and see the likely paths and outcomes, and identify any major roadblocks. Which seems great for software design on paper, and it is! But then it isn't. As seeing a mountain of hurdles overwhelmes me and keeps me from getting anything done.

So far my main approach to this has been one lectured into me by my mother (though never applied while living with her), which is the simple trick of writing the task done, getting it all out of your head and on paper. Then if that doesn't look simple enough break each piece into further pieces, perform each piece and cross it off! Hurray!

It feels good to cross things off.

But some things are still overwhelming, hell just making the list can be a confusing task (just what do I need to do...what are the smaller steps). However I think just as you can show someone else the pieces of something you do like. You can apply this on a personel level (with your team) and think about what will be awesome and fun about implementing this feature. And if you don't enjoy any part of a task. Think about how nice it will be when it's done. And in the past. And if you never enjoy anything, find a new job :)

Rant End.

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