
Ask HN: Be honest; Why do you want to achieve something? - spartan37
According to George Orwell - Sheer egoism (be popular etc), Aesthetic enthusiasm (art), Desire to discover something and boast about it, Desire to change the world - are the only motives for achievements.<p>I will add a few more: Make lots of money and join elite club, To help the needy, To make your people happy, To get yourself out of misery, To have some pleasures for yourself. I hope I haven&#x27;t duplicated the motives.<p>So, which of these push you and how much?
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lsiunsuex
Money. I hate to be so cliche but money is the absolute #1 driving force for
everything I do / learn / work towards.

People say money can't buy happiness, and that may be true, but money can help
buy life. Without money you can't see doctors, you can't receive cancer
treatment, its more difficult to get a good education without money, it's
difficult to do fun things without money.

Yes, we're programmers and you don't need to goto school to learn a language,
but my kids may not necessarily be programmers. Hopefully they want to become
doctors, or dentists, or lawyers or engineers. And those jobs require degrees
and those degrees require money, sometimes, lots of it. Can they earn it on
they're own and get school loans like everyone else? Absolutely - but if I can
help them accomplish their goals, all the better.

Having my name known in some obscure group only known to programmers - meh.
Walking into a room and people recognizing my face and coming up to talk to
me? meh. Putting snow tires on a $250,000 sports car and driving around in a
NY winter? hell yes - because I can and because I earned it.

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spartan37
I think your priorities are closer to what they should be for a natural
biological being.

Also, I think people who work extra hard to just to move from their ordinary
social circle to elite circle are missing the point. The goal is not to change
from being an average person in one social circle to being an average person
in a higher social circle, but to stay in the same social circle and become
the best in that circle - doesn't matter which circle it is.

~~~
lsiunsuex
I don't know what "I think your priorities are closer to what they should be
for a natural biological being." means.

Social circle is of no significance to me - having a nice house and car in the
city or suburbs (where I live, the suburbs are the place to be, not the city)
wouldn't matter to me. The upper class here lives in the suburbs, but to have
the same house in the city would be ok with me, so long as it's a house that I
like. A nice car was specifically mentioned because I'm into cars. Some people
love sports; I love cars. To own a hand made Ferrari or Lamborghini or ... is
a great achievement IMO.

Some people and some I know could care less - they strive to go on great
relaxing vacations. Some strive for security with money in the bank. Everyone
has their own goals. These are mine.

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groaner
Honestly, it's the growing realization that despite all of my efforts, I
haven't done anything worth feeling proud of. To me that feels like I've lived
a waste of a life.

As you can tell, this is an ineffective strategy for motivation.

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onedev
Because it's a fun game to play. I view life as mostly a game. I like seeing
how far I can go. I work hard because it's fun.

I also like the feeling of helping people around me. It's a great feeling to
teach people something they don't know or pulling people up with you, or
simply inspiring them through my actions.

Really I don't have any specific motive like "success" or "fame" or "money". I
barely even look at my bank account tbh (though I should probably sit down one
of these days and analyze my financials and do some stuff I've been putting
off).

I'm generally a pretty zen guy these days. I haven't always been like this,
but I really really like my current state of mind. I'm enjoying life a ton,
because I removed all external expectations.

How did I do it? Exercise, Diet, and Sleep. That's really just it.

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BjoernKW
For me it's a desire to change the world and to some extent aesthetic
enthusiasm. Wanting to change the world always sounds a bit grandiose but the
most significant changes are brought about one step at a time through everyday
effort. I try every day to make the world a better place in various, sometimes
mundane and often tiny ways.

This doesn't mean I don't care about money. Quite to the contrary. Money up to
a certain degree is a more or less accurate gauge of the value you create. It
buys you freedom but it is no end to itself. So, making money for buying
luxury items? I couldn't care less. Making money for the purpose of being able
to do what I care about? Absolutely.

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andersthue
I read Simon Sinek's book "Start with why" last year and realized that my why
is "happiness".

This made it much easier for me to choose what to work on, and currently I am
using my time and energy (and all of my surplus money I get from my consulting
business) to create and spread the word about TimeBlock - a new way of working
that has made me happier, my employed Makers happier and our customers
happier!

My goal is to help Makers, Managers and customers become just 1% happier if I
can do that I will feel very priviliged.

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bbcbasic
My reasons to achieve a given goal X are to follow a vision that I have of my
future. Those visions if I follow their reason, probably come into all 3 of
the orwell categories. Which I guess is a good sign - it is very motivating if
you can make your own life better, and others, and at the same time it feel
like you are creating (being artistic).

The downside is I find it very hard to achieve a goal Y that has been
pressured on to me by someone else. I just try to find ways to avoid that
goal, or just passably do it :-)

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nicholas73
I want success so I can have a more interesting life. If you are stuck in the
rat race, you are a chess piece. If you have made it, you are the player.

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kluck
To create something that survives me and a couple of decades after my death.
Something that brings computer science forward (just one step on the ladder
though).

How much does it push me? Not much, but enough to get my ass up every other
day and program on some projects. Because I do realize in the end everything
will disappear.

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tmaly
I enjoy creating, it is sort of my way of proving I exist
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cogito_ergo_sum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cogito_ergo_sum)

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MichaelCrawford
So I can make my Mama proud.

She and Dad were heavily into that I did some of the work on the Mac I gave
them for Christmas back in the day.

