motivation
What makes effort feel worth it: the neuroscience of wanting to act, apathy, dopamine, and habit.
FilterEveryone, all time146 from 87 people
- RH
Rob Henderson quoted
Psychologist and writer
Their wordsKindness has to be cultivated, and this only happens when it is in demand.
- 1 day earlier
- NS
Noah Smith quoted
Economics writer; author of the Noahpinion newsletter
Their wordsBut there are signs that Trump's unprecedented, Third World level corruption is starting to break through the noise and apathy.
- 2 days earlier
- MZ
Mario Zechner quoted
Austrian developer who created the libGDX game framework
Their wordsand i want you to know that i never liked rust before it was cool.
- 1 day earlier
- DH
David Heinemeier Hansson quoted
Creator of Ruby on Rails, CTO of 37signals
Their wordsBurnout happens when you work too hard with not enough meaning. "He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how" — Nietzsche
- PL
Pieter Levels quoted
Dutch bootstrapper who builds and runs his internet startups alone
Their wordsyou have to take the initiative to bring people together which isn't easy in a time where phones and apps and the internet are simply easier and cheaper dopamine than driving to a friends house for a party
- 3 days earlier
- MP
Maria Popova quoted
Writer and founder of The Marginalian
Our readingA life spent in comfort, certainty and convenience is the most damning way a person can live.
Their wordsthere is no damnation greater than spending our allotted days in the catatonia of comfort and certainty, our inner lives automated by habit and halogen lit by convenience.
↗Do Not Spare Yourself: An Antidote to Feeling Like You Are Waiting to Start Livingthemarginalian.org 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 3 days earlier
- JS
John Scalzi quoted
American science fiction novelist (Old Man's War
Our readingThe things that excite adults are different from what excited them when they were younger.
Their wordsGetting new major appliances was also a reminder that as an adult, the things you get excited and happy about are very different from what you’d get excited about when you were younger.
- DH
David Heinemeier Hansson quoted
Our readingMany people seem to find honest enthusiasm alien, as if such a high could only come from drugs.
Their wordsIt amazes me how alien honest enthusiasm seems to so many people, as if that kind of high could only come from cocaine or other drugs.
- 1 day earlier
- BS
Brad Stulberg quoted
Writer and coach on performance, well-being and excellence
Their wordsThere’s this myth that you need to feel good to get going, that you need to be super inspired and super motivated all the time. But more often than not, in reality, what you need is to get going to give yourself a chance at feeling good.
- 2 days earlier
- SJ
Stefan Judis quoted
German web developer, writer and conference speaker
Their wordsPutting in the work comes with a feeling of accomplishment. If you do something hard, you can be proud of it.
↗Sally Hall on being proud of doing the work (#blogPost)stefanjudis.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
- EA
Emily Atkin quoted
Climate journalist; founded HEATED in 2019 after reporting…
Their wordsIt means people still want confrontational, voicey climate reporting. They believe it should exist, and they’re willing to help make sure it does.
- 1 day earlier
- TE
Terence Eden quoted
British open-standards and open-source technologist
Their wordsWe have the technology - but we don't seem to be interested in using it.
↗Book Review: How to Build a Space Station by Jonathan Morrison ★★★⯪☆shkspr.mobi 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 2 days earlier
- GR
Gretchen Rubin quoted
Writer on happiness, habits and human nature
Our readingAn unstarted, unresolved task is more mentally exhausting than almost any other kind of task.
Their wordsNothing is more exhausting than the task that's never started.
↗How to Tackle a Nagging Task: Power Hour!gretchenrubin.com 1st of 3 in this piece
- 3 days earlier
- TL
Tobias Lütke quoted
Co-founder and CEO of Shopify
Their wordsI don't think the executives tend to be short-term focused, but the executives often like what they incentivized to keep their job. Therefore, they need to be able to prove that they're doing a good job at intervals.
↗Tobi Lütke: The Skills AI Makes More Valuableyoutube.com 14th of 26 in this recording
- TL
Tobias Lütke quoted
Their wordsI think doing the same thing with the mind is totally possible and affirmations are the easiest way to do it
↗Tobi Lütke: The Skills AI Makes More Valuableyoutube.com 17th of 26 in this recording
- 3 days earlier
- VR
Venkatesh Rao quoted
Writer and consultant on technology
Their wordsWhat we currently supply is something harder to name. Call it liveness: attention, desire, stakes, valuation, embodied experience, contact with physical reality, motivation, and the sense that some outcomes matter while others do not.
↗Our Eukaryotic Momentcontraptions.venkateshrao.com 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 2 days earlier
- CV
Claire Vo quoted
Founder of ChatPRD and host of the How I AI podcast
Their wordsI think this gap between our building capacity and like true in our heart of hearts conviction like does any of this code matter is a much bigger problem than any of us are willing to admit.
↗Everyone’s shipping more. Does any of it matter? | Claire Vo (Lenny & Friends Summit, San Francisco, 10 September 2026)youtube.com 1st of 10 in this recording
- 4 days earlier
- RH
Rob Henderson quoted
Their wordsWe may not be able to remove the desire for status, but we can change what earns status.
↗Some Status Games Are Worth Playingrobkhenderson.com 1st of 2 in this piece
- 2 days earlier
- NF
Nat Friedman quoted
Investor and engineer; CEO of GitHub from 2018 to 2021
Their wordsWhere do you get your dopamine? The answer is predictive of your behavior Better to get your dopamine from improving your ideas than from having them validated
- 3 days earlier
- VB
Vicki Boykis quoted
Machine learning engineer working on recommender systems
Their wordsDeleting code is hard, particularly because it's a thankless task that usually doesn't go on promo packets, which is why we end up shipping hundreds of thousands of lines of sparkle emoji magic wand AI features, but deleting code is silent.
- SA
Scott Alexander quoted
Essayist; writes Astral Codex Ten
Their wordsRather than treat AI as similar to airplanes, we should treat it as something between airplanes and humans. We don’t know exactly where on this spectrum they will land, but we can no longer be certain that AI will lack any given humanlike motivation.
- 1 day earlier
- JL
Joe Liemandt quoted
Founder of Trilogy Software and principal of Alpha School
Their wordsAnd that's why we say motivation is 90% of the problem or the solution because you have to be able to motivate the person to engage with these personalized lessons to learn it.
↗How to Accelerate Learning & Improve Education | Joe Liemandtyoutube.com 18th of 26 in this recording
- JL
Joe Liemandt quoted
Their wordsthese kids have a block that they can't do it. You do whatever you can including paying them to break through the block. they then see themselves as a different person
↗How to Accelerate Learning & Improve Education | Joe Liemandtyoutube.com 22nd of 26 in this recording
- 3 days earlier
- BT
Brandon Taylor quoted
American novelist and critic, author of Real Life
Their wordsI have accepted the reality that hard work does not mean that there will be a pay off for that hard work.
↗i quit reading and almost diedblgtylr.substack.com 2nd of 3 in this piece
- 4 days earlier
- MH
Masud Husain quoted
Professor of Neurology at the University of Oxford
Their wordsit was only about 15 years ago I started beginning to be aware that there may be a an important biology underlying motivation and when that biology goes wrong, it can lead to loss of motivation and even pathological apathy.
↗How to Improve Motivation & Overcome Procrastination | Dr. Masud Husainyoutube.com 1st of 24 in this recording
- MH
Masud Husain quoted
Their wordsWe find that everyone is willing to work for high rewards. But the difference between motivated people and apathetic people is at the level of the low rewards. Apathetic people are more inclined to say, "Nah, I don't think this is worth the effort, so I won't do that option."
↗How to Improve Motivation & Overcome Procrastination | Dr. Masud Husainyoutube.com 2nd of 24 in this recording
- MH
Masud Husain quoted
Their wordsWe were talking about reward versus effort. And essentially that's a very important way I think that we make a decision. Much of that could be subconscious.
↗How to Improve Motivation & Overcome Procrastination | Dr. Masud Husainyoutube.com 3rd of 24 in this recording
- MH
Masud Husain quoted
Their wordsIt's showing us that apathetic people use more brain energy when they're making this decision. They have a bigger activation energy barrier to overcome because when they're making that decision, the brain is consuming more energy. It's consuming more glucose when it's doing that.
↗How to Improve Motivation & Overcome Procrastination | Dr. Masud Husainyoutube.com 4th of 24 in this recording
- MH
Masud Husain quoted
Their wordsYou can either increase the reward or change it in some way in terms of something that's meaningful for the person or you change the effort required to accomplish maybe part of the task or perhaps start you know just initiate the task and often starting can be a huge motivational pull.
↗How to Improve Motivation & Overcome Procrastination | Dr. Masud Husainyoutube.com 5th of 24 in this recording
- MH
Masud Husain quoted
Their wordsIt would also help if your manager said, "Well done for getting that bit done." Right? That's that's also a motivation pull to think, "Yeah, actually I don't need to get the whole piece done to get the reward of somebody identified that as a positive thing to have done."
↗How to Improve Motivation & Overcome Procrastination | Dr. Masud Husainyoutube.com 7th of 24 in this recording