# motivation Published articles for motivation. This is one page of public article previews, not the complete archive. Follow Next page to continue. Summaries are not the original full articles. ## What Really Motivates tech Employees? DevFeed: [What Really Motivates tech Employees?]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: j2sw Published: 2026-07-23T13:54:00Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Justin Wilson (j2sw)]() Topics: [Job](), [Learning]() Tags: [100percent-human](), [employees](), [go](), [money](), [motivation](), [non-ai](), [tech-worker](), [technology-industry-commentary](), [work]() ### AI overview The article argues that employees are motivated by different factors, including promotion, predictable schedules, challenging work, stable income, compensation, personal time, flexibility, and opportunities to learn. It suggests that managers should understand individual motivations rather than assume everyone values the same incentives. ### Source excerpt It's time to take a break from all the technical posts and get down to human basics. This is a nice break from the fun, but sometimes dry, technical mumbo jumbo I spout off here. I have worked with enough people over the years to realize that there is no single reason people come to ... Read more The post What Really Motivates tech Employees? appeared first on Justin Wilson (j2sw). ## Self-organizing companies don't need managers but coaches DevFeed: [Self-organizing companies don't need managers but coaches]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: tobi@techunicorn.builders (Tobias Mende) Published: 2024-01-20T05:00:00Z Content type: article Language: en Sources: [Tobias Mende]() Topics: [Self-organizing Team](), [Agile]() Tags: [agile](), [coaching](), [developer-experience-developer-productivity-engineering-leadership-high-purpose-environments-lea](), [manager](), [motivation](), [organizational-structure](), [organizations](), [self-organizing](), [teams]() ### AI overview The article argues that self-organizing companies need coaching roles beyond traditional management and classic agile coaching. It presents self-organization as a way to improve organizational adaptability and create more impact, enjoyment, and human connection at work. ### Source excerpt Self-organizing companies don't need managers but coaches If you are a manager or consider managing teams and organizations a significant part of your profession, the title will likely cause a feeling of rejection or a strong disagreement. I invite you to read on anyway. ## Engineering Excellence through Mission-Driven Teams (High-Purpose Environments, Part 5) DevFeed: [Engineering Excellence through Mission-Driven Teams (High-Purpose Environments, Part 5)]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: tobi@techunicorn.builders (Tobias Mende) Published: 2023-06-03T05:00:00Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Tobias Mende]() Topics: [Software Engineering](), [engineering-culture](), [decision-making]() Tags: [collaboration](), [culture](), [culture-high-purpose-environments-engineering-excellence-organizational-design](), [decision-making](), [engineering](), [engineering-excellence](), [motivation]() ### AI overview This article examines how an engineering mission shapes high-purpose software engineering environments. It distinguishes a long-term engineering vision from a concrete, actionable mission and explains how mission statements guide team direction, decision-making, problem-solving, engagement, and motivation. ### Source excerpt Engineering Excellence through Mission-Driven Teams (High-Purpose Environments, Part 5) In software engineering and product development, high-purpose environments are vital for driving innovation, creativity, and collaboration. A strong sense of purpose, clear values, and a commitment to continuous growth and improvement characterize these environments. ## Should we focus on developer experience or developer productivity? DevFeed: [Should we focus on developer experience or developer productivity?]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: tobi@techunicorn.builders (Tobias Mende) Published: 2022-02-26T12:57:00Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Tobias Mende]() Topics: [Developer experience](), [developer-productivity](), [Development]() Tags: [culture-developer-productivity](), [developer-experience](), [developer-productivity](), [employee-motivation](), [experience](), [metrics](), [motivation](), [productivity](), [software-development]() ### AI overview The article argues that developer experience should take priority over developer productivity metrics. It distinguishes experience, which focuses on developers' well-being and working conditions, from productivity or effectiveness, which emphasizes outcomes such as speed, quality, and other KPIs. It contends that excessive metric-driven pressure can reduce motivation and that addressing poor developer experience is a better path to productivity. ### Source excerpt Should we focus on developer experience or developer productivity? When talking about developer experience, there are a couple of other names thrown into the conversation that all kind-of mean the same, but IMHO have a slightly different touch / focus and can be perceived quite differently. ## How Managerial Authority Can Undermine Developer Empowerment and Productivity DevFeed: [How Managerial Authority Can Undermine Developer Empowerment and Productivity]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Pedro Gil Carvalho Published: 2022-02-04T08:00:42Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Pedro Gil Carvalho]() Topics: [Software](), [Job]() Tags: [article](), [developers](), [leadership](), [manager](), [managerial-roles](), [motivation](), [performance](), [power](), [problems](), [product](), [productivity](), [pull-request](), [team]() ### AI overview This opinion article argues that managers who rely too heavily on authority, including micromanaging approvals and imposing their own ideas, can disempower developers and reduce engagement, performance, and product delivery. It advocates servant leadership through clarity, enablement, and team empowerment. ### Source excerpt More power, more problems ## Preparing for a Tech Talk, Part 1: Motivation DevFeed: [Preparing for a Tech Talk, Part 1: Motivation]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Published: 2018-12-26T00:00:00Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Dan Abramov]() Topics: [Learning](), [JOIN]() Tags: [motivation](), [presentation](), [speaker](), [tips]() ### AI overview The first article in a series about preparing for a tech talk explains how the author chooses a topic. It distinguishes external motivations, such as recognition or career benefits, from internal motivations, such as teaching, learning, or influencing a conversation, and encourages speakers to understand their own reasons. ### Source excerpt Here's my recipe for a good talk idea. ## Optimize for motivation: Post on Lincoln Loop's blog DevFeed: [Optimize for motivation: Post on Lincoln Loop's blog]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Graham King Published: 2012-06-15T16:15:05Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Graham King]() Topics: [optimize]() Tags: [behaviour](), [blog](), [flow](), [intrinsic-motivation](), [lincolnloop](), [motivation](), [optimize](), [post](), [psychology](), [remote]() ### AI overview An opinion article about intrinsic motivation, flow, and the limits of coercion, framed around understanding motivation when working remotely with a client. ### Source excerpt Excited to have my first post on Lincoln Loop's blog, about intrinsic motivation, flow, and why you don't find cats in offices: When your client is hundreds of miles away, but your bed only three feet, it helps to understand motivation. The first thing to understand about motivation is that it's not something you do to someone. That's called coercion. With enough power you can make anyone do almost anything, but you can't make them want to; and typically ... ## Motivating Users DevFeed: [Motivating Users]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Map Published: 2009-10-01T05:25:24Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Craig Kerstiens]() Topics: [Users](), [User Experience]() Tags: [motivation](), [people](), [privacy](), [support](), [user-experience]() ### AI overview The article argues that social websites can motivate users more effectively by combining rules with social nudging. Rather than exposing raw rule data or hiding the rules entirely, sites can use context-sensitive interactions, encouragement, accountability, and privacy controls to help users pursue goals. ### Source excerpt I've done some recent advising for someone working on a site that's of a social nature. The site is intended in some form to motivate users, the initial thought on this was to define a lot of rules, and send automated messages to users. To me this approach felt very 1990's. So assuming that were true, then comes the question of how do you motivate users? I think rules do usually come somewhere in the process, you need to know when to motivate the users, however the catch is how you expose the results of those rules. And in thinking about it there's a variety of levels at which you can expose those rules from more raw data forms, to several steps of analysis or actions on top of them. Raw data works for analytical users, users that naturally consume data AND are already heavily motivated for the set goal. Lets say for sake of argument this is 10% of users. This means by exposing very little gloss, and mostly the data which the rules are run on you'll lose 90% of users. The other extreme is to almost entirely hide the rule and obfuscate this with actions that you know can lead the user back to their goal. I feel not quite this, but some derivative of it, in the form of social nudging could be incredibly useful for many different means. There's many real world situations where people rely on each other for support, you can think of traditional AA type settings, or weight loss, or other groups with a central focus of accountability. But these forms of groups seem to be largely absent in the virtual space, or when they are present are realistic groups simple dropped into a virtual space. What happens when users want some mixed level of privacy, but encouragement? What you need to do is to have your rules define when you need to have users get motivation from others. The fun part is how you drive users to interact at those times, this can be through a variety of options, all depending on your site. A very basic example of this is the birthday reminder on facebook. They're