The note (below the fold) was posted response to Eliot's recent "Goals and Goalposts" article.

It occurs to me that learning about project motivation from makers is sort of like apprentice learning, as opposed to formal school learning.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with Eliot's post, and you can learn a lot from watching an "old hand" do things, but it's sort of like the difference between being an apprentice in a machine shop and learning by watching the experts (and asking questions), versus going to school and taking formal courses.

Old pros explaining something they discovered after years of experimentation is fine, but going to school can give you the background you need to understand *why* certain ways work best, and can give you an understanding of subtle differences that you might not notice just by watching someone.

Eliot's post misses one of these subtleties; namely, that there are types of motivation, and the differences are crucial. Focusing on one type will diminish your love of projects, while focusing on the other type will enhance it. Without explaining this distinction, it's entirely possible that future articles will serve to reduce peoples' motivation to make projects. Without this distinction, it's even possible that Eliot's current article will do this.

I'm not an expert in these things either, started studying this less than a year ago, and my reason for doing it is unrelated to making things. I'm not in a position to critique Eliot's post, but it bothers me that a future post might actually be harmful.

It's too bad we don't have an actual expert we could ask about such things.

Suggestion: Could HAD find a researcher in these things and do an AMA article about it?

Extrinsic motivations are goals, things you get in exchange for being done such as money or likes.

Intrinsic motivations are what you get while doing something, and fall into 4 categories: learning something new, practicing something you’re rusty at, creative control, and value to yourself, family, or community.

Creative tasks respond to intrinsic motivations but if you concentrate on the extrinsic goals, the intrinsic motivations will fade. This is called the “overjustification effect” and it’s well established in the literature.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overjustification_effect

Setting a completion target is fine so long as it’s not an extrinsic goal. Don’t do projects to get subscribers on your YouTube channel, do projects because you like to do projects. Set goals so that the project is inherently valuable to you (or your family, or the community) instead of valuable for the money it brings in.

Moving the intrinsic goalposts is fine because your enjoyment comes from the journey, not the destination. The enjoyment from extrinsic goals quickly fades, and you’re always looking for the next one. Happiness from extrinsic goals is always over the cognitive horizon.

It’s not known whether the overjustification effect can be reversed, but I have an experimental technique that might work. I'm in the process of coding it up as a project that people can download and try.

Available in about a month.

https://hackaday.io/project/180726-motivation