Motivation...

W

wyrd

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Where do people find motivation to finish projects? I have a hard time finishing something that takes only a few days. I can't possibly imagine trying to make something that'd take 6 months.
 
If you become a professional programmer and lack the motivation to finish a project you won't eat.

Many projects go on for years, 6 months is not a long time. I have written a couple programs by myself that took more than 6 months, and since there is nothing I like to do more than programming I didn't need any motivation. As a matter of fact, the opposite is true, having the project(s) gave me the motivation to get up in the morning. And I'm not a professional programmer yet.

Granted, I was working on them in my "spare" time, but that turned out to be a benefit as well since it gave me more time away from the computer to think through what I was doing in the programs.
 
Maybe I need to consider changing my major then. :\ I have yet to find anything where I am motivated to the point where it gives me a reason to get up in the morning. Except playing games of course.. but that doesn't exactly qualify.

Heh.. I don't think I've ever programmed anything that I'm even remotely proud of.
 
Why do you want to be a programmer I guess is the question you need to think about. If my understanding of your situation is correct, you tend to change your mind about "what you want to be when you grow up" a fair amount.

Hopefully some day I will make it as a programmer in the real world, and if that happens I will consider myself one of the luckiest people in the world because I will be doing something I really enjoy.

I see that programming is not for everyone, but I really like it. I have written something I'm proud of, and as a matter of fact, I just started a project which will be a long on-going project without a definite ending. I have been rejuvinated by it and just thinking about it motivates me to work on it some more. Too bad I work full time and go to school full time and therfore don't have more time to devote to it.
 
Motivation, as Orbity pointed out, comes from you. If you're not that interested in the project or programming in general, it's going to be a struggle to keep motivated for a long time. That will eventually hurt you professionally if you decide to become a programmer as many projects are longer than a few months (except for short term contract jobs).

As a note, my first 2.5 years of professional experience was on a large, ongoing project that had no real end. It was a massive piece of VB3 software (2-tier client/server) that had constant improvement requests and programming opportunities (ie, bugs). I finally left to be closer to my wife, but I'm SO glad I did. Along with a new job, I got on some new contracts where I actually had goals, such as finishing a project :)

While some of the "finished" projects are still ongoing, I felt a tremendous sense of accomplishment when the first project "went live" to the users. It's invigorating to start a new project, but I still feel proud about having completed the other ones.

As Orbity mentioned, I'd try to figure out why it is you don't finish some projects. Maybe you don't like programming, maybe you don't like the projects you've chosen, maybe the fun is getting some graphics to show up, but not as much fun to add the menus, the AI logic, and such. Maybe your designs weren't quite right or you had no designs and you just got frustrated by the thought of rewriting a bunch of code. If that's the case, I'd definitely stick with it. If you're coding and think "crap, this isn't going to work" then STOP coding immediately. Don't try and fix it right there (unless it's a tiny bit of code). Think about what went wrong, what you'll need to do to fix it and then do it. Don't be afraid to scrap a bunch of code versus tweaking existing code. "Clean" code is much easier to fix later when the bugs show up (and they will, I guarantee).

I've been lucky enough to work with a GREAT bunch of guys, almost all of whom like to do things the "right way". If we start discussing something and realize that we did something wrong, we don't try to get a quick hack in place to fix it. We'll take the time to get it right. Or, if there's not enough time, make sure that future code is done right and assign the cleanup of the "wrong" portions to a low priority task, to be completed as the other code is touched. Clean is one thing, being obsessive/compulsive about it is another :)

/end long windedness

-Nerseus
 
Back in the day of mIRC scripting (don't laugh, it's how I got started), I had a bunch of friends who I made little scripts with. Day in and day out we'd be making all sorts of useless crap, but it was fun.

Thinking about why I got into programming in the first place wasn't really the joy of programming, but the joy of creating something with friends. Since all of my friends have moved on, I have no one to program anything with. So.. I get bored easily. I have no reason to program anything.

But that's okay, I'll find some programming friends at school I suppose. In the mean time, I found some motivation for my current project *mumbles something about Nerseus and the word wanna-be*
 
hmm..speaking of motivation.. Here is my experience:

From Funnest to Hardest

1. Desgining the Product (Concept building)- Fun!
2. Starting the write the main code - Fun, but takes a while
3. Writing, debugging, and testing work in progress version - hard, difficult and gets repetitus.

------- Ice Breaker ----------------------------

4. FInishing the product. Very Hard! You have to strap tape to your legs and your chair to get the program finished!
5. Publishing it - Hardest! Yes.. when the program is finally finished I shrug my shoulders and say now what? SHould I sell it like I planned or just give it out for free... it it worth it??

Yep.. that just about does it for me. :)
 
My reason to get up in the morning is to write more code. :)

I get a sense of accomplishment on each section of meaningful code, I don't need to wait for the end because sometimes the end is nowhere in sight with large scale projects.

Wyrd, you started a thread a few weeks ago about programming being artistry or a mechanical process, well, I'll say it again... artistry. :)
 
I also find it difficult when code gets inferior.. like the recent .NET attack :) Not that it is hard to learn a new language, but that over and over again code and programs get lost... like a needle in a haystack. You'll find yourself with only the best code you've written because that's the code that lasted so long.. the rest kind of get thrown away or forgotten. Does anyone else know that i'm talking about here. It bogs you down when the code you right doesn't make it to the end.... :(
 
What bugs me even more is when "prototypical" code does make it to the end.

You know, hack a quick solution for a problem. This solution gets integrated in the product for one single purpose. Then you realise that the quick hack can easily be expanded for other purposes. And on and on it goes. But you never have time or money to redisgn the whole stuff. In the end you have a large, badly documented, not elegantly design component in your product.
 
Are you talking about me, Heiko?? I only took over that ONE bad report querying/emailing/faxing/asynchronous piece of code, I didn't design...

oh, nevermind. :p

Yes, that bugs me, too. But I don't do that anymore (goes and cleans up his code before anyone code reviews anything...)

-Nerseus
 
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