Motivation

It’s 11 PM. The pull request is due tomorrow. You’ve known about it for a week. You open your laptop. Check Slack. Browse Reddit. Watch a YouTube video about productivity (the irony is not lost on you). Check Twitter. Read an article about procrastination. Look at the clock. 11:47 PM. You finally start working at midnight. You’ll be up until 3 AM, stressed and exhausted, producing mediocre work that you could’ve done calmly in two hours if you’d started earlier. ...

I once worked with two developers who joined our team at the same time. The first developer—let’s call him Mark—was obsessed with levels and compensation. Every conversation circled back to promotions, competing offers, and total comp. He worked hard, sure, but you could tell his eyes glazed over during technical discussions unless they directly impacted his promotion timeline. The second developer—let’s call her Sarah—was obsessed with the craft. She’d spend evenings learning Rust for fun. She volunteered to pair program with junior developers. She got genuinely excited about elegant solutions to gnarly problems. Promotions seemed like an afterthought. ...