CS@Worcester   CS-448

Summary

This pattern talks about the ups and down of the journey to be a master at the craft of programming and how to remain on the long road despite the many challenges I may face. Sometimes “working in hte trenches of real-world projects is rigorous, sometimes tedious, sometimes exhausting, often frustrating, and frequently over chaotic or constraining.”

The author prepares us by telling us that there will be days that we will expect days where we have an easy time programming. In other times we will be going through a lot in some nasty projects that we undertake, your commitment will be questioned. It is important to remember what motivates you for the long road. For some it is motivation by titles and money, for others the enjoyment of programming will be their driving motivation, for others working on open source softwares will improve their reputation within the programming community.

After a couple of examples the authors ask us to rediscover our motivations by listing them down and using that list of motivations to keep us going even when times get tough.

Reflection

Sustainable Motivations are important especially when the journey is long, i believe that this will be an important part of my career journey to constantly remind me as to why I am doing what I am doing. That pattern has reinforced the importance of me understanding why I do what I am doing. On the point of having money as a primary motivation in you career I find it had to accept it. I think it would be foolish to run after money as you will end up loosing so much more in pursuit of money. As the author mentions follow your passions and then money will come to you effortlessly.

Concluding, I would like to point out one of the programmers that the authors mention, Obie. Obie took a huge risk by choosing to start from scratch and learn a new language although he was proefecient in the language he knew. However through having sutstainable motivation he was able to ascend to higher heights eventually leading him to start his own web application development program.

It is important to remember the how sustainable motivations can continually recharge and re-energize us for the long journey that is ahead of us.