What motivates programmers?
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I will start with a question, if you have a spare £400 in your development budget do you A) Reward your star programmer with a £400 bonus or B) Buy him a 24 Inch 1920×1200 LCD screen?
If you answered ‘A’ then you need to read on. If you answered ‘B’ then you understand what motivates programmers but I suggest you still read on and comment later if you have any ideas beyond what I cover.
One of the things that they never teach non-programmer managers is how to motivate programmers. You may think the programmers are motivated by the same things as the rest of your staff, you are WRONG. Programmers tend to be counted within the higher IQ brackets and are therefore harder typically to second guess.
“Regardless of the image they wish to project, the average programmer does not have a higher IQ than any other worker with a college degree. In fact, they may even be lower.”
This article is worth reading just to get a view of someone who does not understand programmers at all. And should certainly not be attempting to write about how to manage them with views like the above.
The average programmer may be projecting an image of superiority but non-programmers miss-read this and think it is aimed at them. It is not. You have to understand that programmers rate themselves against other programmers not against anyone else.
This is important when making any decision about how to reward them. If you purchase some new equipment for your sales staff the likely reaction will be … nothing. If you purchase new equipment for your programming staff they will immediately start analyzing who has got what and by reference who is being rewarded more than others based upon the quality of the equipment. If you think this is not relevant think again.
What this comes down to is that the work environment is generally more important to a programmer than any kind of financial reward (within limits). But managing who gets what within your company is not easy.
You can just take the view (and if you have a big enough budget) that everyone is standardized and that you all get the same equipment. This in practice within a development environment never works because each programmer may require a very specialized setup which breaks the standardization rule and your back to ‘who gets what’.
Hardware Cascade
Programmers outwardly will try and give the impression that they are a loose nit bunch who care nothing for standard business practices and certainly not give any importance to the usual office politics of who is above who. This all goes out the window with new equipment because the hardware is seen as a status symbol within the ‘non-existent’ programmer hierarchy.
So when upgrading machines it is vitally important that you understand the structure of this invisible hierarchy. I typically upgrade at the top of the tree and push machines downwards, this can mean lots of re-installing but most programmers will be very happy to put in extra hours to perform the re-install if the reward is a new machine (or at least a faster machine)
The appeal of solving a problem
Programmers program because they love to solve problems.
Remember this rule:
“If you give a programmer a job that does not involve solving something they will become unhappy.”
Solving can mean many things and it is easier (and more important) to understand what classes as a ‘non-solving’ task. Typically asking a programmer to go fix something would be classed as ‘non-solving’ as the solution has already been found and you are asking them to re-solve it by having to look at the code again.
What is important is that you find ways of making ‘non-solving’ tasks into ’solving’ tasks. A typical example would be the difference between asking one of your programmers to put together a report (e.g. some usage statistics) by hand or assigning him more time so he can ’solve’ something and produce an automated system that will email you the report every day/week/month.
Other typical non-solving situations
- Writing documentation
- Creating schedules
- Writing reports
- 1st Line Support
All programmers have to perform non-happy-non-solving tasks and some cope better with dealing with a higher ‘non-solving’ ratio of tasks than others. Understanding your programmers and who can cope with what level of ‘non-solving’ is important to keeping an overall smooth operation.
Micro Managing
God help you if you try this tactic. My above statement about ’solving’ is at the very heart of why you cannot attempt to micro manage your programming team. Any attempt on your part to perform solving yourself means they are not solving. And even worse your are questioning their abilities to ’solve’ things which just about amounts to the worst thing you can do to a programmer.
In any crisis situation your programmers are likely to be in more of a frenzied state than you are and in nearly all cases your first reaction of helping is the wrong one. The hard part here is that you need to give the impression that you have the utmost confidence in their abilities (do not try and directly tell them this they will take it the wrong way) and that you can leave it to them to solve. And at the same time still be in touch with the direction they are taking to ensure that the crisis is resolved.
Meetings
Programmers see meetings as wastes of time. Most communication between programmers is done via email or by a quick wander to another desk to clarify something that is beyond the scope of an email. Therefore any time within a meeting room is ‘unhappy time’ and unhappiness increases exponentially with the length of the meeting. So at all costs if you do need to drag your development team into a meeting either include some form of Lego to play with (I am serious) or keep them very short.
There are lots of other areas I could cover (and maybe will in another post) but just remember that a happy programmer is a productive programmer.
Comment by Anonymous on 11 July 2007:
bravo.
my computer equipment has not been upgraded since 2003 and I work with a 17″ lcd - although other programming staff in our department have larger or even two larger lcd monitors, the quality of work I produce is far better! (yes, tooting my own horn.)
Being mistreated by not being rewarded or provisioned for, I strive to outperform everyone else with lesser hardware.
Someone once said, if you think your desktop is too slow then you need a faster server.
You don’t need
Comment by Stephan Schmidt on 11 July 2007:
Excellent.
Comment by Stephan Schmidt on 11 July 2007:
Additionally as Matt said: ‘Today was my first day onsite at LinkedIn in Mountain View, California. I’m very impressed by two things so far: they gave me a new MacBook Pro and Sushi is on tap for lunch tomorrow. [...] “If the MacBook Pro isn’t fast enough for you, we can see about getting you a Mac Pro.” I like a company that knows what developers like and doesn’t have a problem treating them well.’
I’m always amazed at managers who don’t understand such a simple idea. One of my former employers especially made me argue with him, because developers where on the same hardware schedule as sales people, although developers were running app servers, message queues, databases and IDEs on their machines and sales people used Outlook and IE. Astonishing.
Peace
-stephan
Comment by PDS on 11 July 2007:
What motivates programmers? An BMW CS3.
Comment by Scotch Drinker on 11 July 2007:
If when you say “average programmer”, you really mean “above-average programmer”, then maybe you’re on track. But if you really think that the average programmer is significantly smarter than the rest of the workforce, I’m guessing you’ve always had the luxury of working with above-average programmers.
Average programmers are just that, average. They live in Dilbert-land and they are motivated typically by a paycheck and a job that doesn’t completely suck. If you give them a project with 90% of the requirements drawn out and a technology they are comfortable with, they do OK. On anything else, it’s a crapshoot.
The sample of programmers is no different than doctors or janitors. You have a few that are well above average, a few that are well below average and the rest are just right in the middle. You start off the article referring to star programmers and that I can buy. I’m guessing that’s what you meant throughout.
Comment by Chris Smith on 11 July 2007:
The article overgeneralizes quite a bit. The “motivated by hardware” bit may be true for some people, but it’s also quite untrue for others for example.
Programmers see meetings as a waste of time when they *are* a waste of time. Meetings that are useful to programmers involve talking to other programmers or about things that affect programming tasks. My experience is that good programmers expect this, and want it. Managers, on the other hand, need to hear all the perspectives and understand things from everyone’s perspective; sales and marketing, documentation, support, etc., and assess how the overall project is going. Managers spend lots of time trying to get all these perspectives, and that’s why managers aren’t expected to have a lot of time to do the actual work. The problem arises when managers decide that it’s good for programmers to do this as well. This often arises from the even more tragic phenomenon where good programmers start to be “groomed” for management. There’s no more justification for this than for asking salespeople to sit in on tech support every once in a while, or tech support to attend code reviews.
Comment by Josh on 11 July 2007:
Good, solid read. Nice work.
Everytime I read something like this I feel obligated to force it upon the missus to read and understand, but unfortunately, she doesn’t oblige.
While I’ll agree that doesn’t summize ALL programmers, it does summize me, whether I am happy with that or not
Comment by Jean-Baptiste Potonnier on 11 July 2007:
Hum.
I Don’t agree with you.
As a developper, I don’t want to be treaded like a geek, who just want to play with the last hardware. I just need a descent machine to run my IDE, a good keyboard and a good screen.
I don’t think it’s judicious to reward a developper particularly.
In case of success, I think it is more adapted to reward the whole team (offer a restaurant, or a drink for the whole team).
If you want to keep your dev, do not forget to augment their salary, at least at the level they can find elsewhere.
In a well-functionning team, everyone will find his place. A very good developper will become a natural referent, and this is also some reward.
By the way with a manager like Tim Bryce, I think it wont be late before I quit. I don’t think he understands the activity of programming.
Sadly he disabled the comments on his blog…
PS: sorry for my english…
Comment by Nick Halstead on 11 July 2007:
Scotch Drinker, I have certainly been rather blessed by working with above-average programmers for most of my career (I have recruited most of them.) so yes my management style and experience is based around dealing with above-average programmers who’s average IQ is in the high range. Dealing with below-average is a totally different article.
Chris, I have overgeneralized because I could write a bible on on the varying instances of how to deal with each programmer I have ever worked with. I did a recent post on ‘programming and management’ - http://tinyurl.com/2pgaod which covers some of your points. I certainly have never pushed any programmer into management, I enjoy doing both but I am a rarety (i believe), I have a friend who works for a big corporation who has been pushed up the ranks and now is leading a large team and it is stressing him out big time. Would he rather just be a programmer? god yes, but he also wants the money.
Josh, Glad you like it, hope the wife does as well
My wife has to read most of my posts as shes the one who checks my grammar. (this one hasnt been checked so if its bad I am to blame!)
Comment by chuck on 11 July 2007:
I see writing documentation as a solving problem, which is maybe why I enjoy it more than it seems other programmers do. You’re solving a communications problem: given a technical concept and an audience, find the optimal sequence of words to transmit the cconcept without boring the reader to death.
Comment by Craig on 11 July 2007:
This is great, i’ve been a programmer for many many years, and this PIN POINTS my motivation. Great Read.
Comment by Chris Smith on 11 July 2007:
Nick, I actually didn’t mean to be entirely critical. I completely agree with the part about solving problems, and there’s some good advice there. It’s just that leading with the technophile stereotype got me off on the wrong foot.
Comment by Zlatan on 11 July 2007:
In response to Chris,
The tragic phenomenon where good programmers start to be “groomedâ€? for management usually doesn’t happen in more “intellectual capitalâ€? conscious businesses, basically company usually can’t afford to lose the level of skill that the programmer in favour of a better management candidate, as resource management is sometimes not as important as marketability of a particular skill/level of skill.
What this sometimes results into is even more tragic phenomenon where companies groom sales and/or business analysts into management positions, which is the most detrimental decision a company can make; worst case example being, letting a sales person to be in charge of the programmers (or any technical staff).
In my opinion, the answer to this is to let more highly skilled programmers with leadership potential develop (be groomed into) leaders and/or thought leaders for one and then multiple dev project teams and essentially become resource managers of those technical teams with continuous involvement in more critical areas of work so that company doesn’t lose out on their intellectual capital, and the company can also benefit from being sure that all of their projects are going in the right direction following the best practices (as prescribed by the most skilled/experienced programmers) .
Also, important thing from management side is to remember (as noted in the article) that we’re not all equal. And treating them all as equal can sometimes be very detrimental, especially to the more valuable professionals in that group. Equaling sales and programmers especially when it comes to hardware and similar things is just crazy, and can and will create many, many difficulties to the management.
Real art is creating and maintaining the equilibrium between sales, project managers, programmers/system architects, and business analysts.
Sales is only motivated by money.
Project Managers by timely delivery and adherence to project timelines and policies.
System Architect/ Programmers by the challenge and appeal to solving a problem, as mentioned in this article (yeah and money) as well as the recognition.
Business Analysts is sometimes only by client interaction and relationship with the business (although it should be by correctly conceptualizing business process in order to allow for creating the best possible solution and better relationship with the technical/development team, but hey)
So go figure out, and manage these guys.
(all this is just my personal opinion, which can change if proven wrong so please feel free to discuss and disagree).
Comment by Ed on 11 July 2007:
The article isn’t just over generalized by a bit. It’s by a lot.
“I have a friend who works for a big corporation who has been pushed up the ranks and now is leading a large team and it is stressing him out big time. Would he rather just be a programmer? god yes, but he also wants the money”
This reply contradicts your argument that programmer prefers than money. Unless if your friend is not a star programmer.
I guess your friend isn’t up for the challenge to become someone higher. Why can’t he view it as another “problem solving” situation? or does “problem solving” only refer to coding these days?
A company needs continuity. That’s why they groom people to be leaders. If all star programmers never gone up the ladder, they will leave your company in 3 years. Outside the big companies like Google/Yahoo!/Microsoft/IBM and others, programmers are writing code for a specific products. Once these products hit version 3, your star programmers will move to another company because star programmers don’t see any problem needs to be solved. It’s more of fix the bugs. Even Google can’t keep their star programmers longer than 5 years.
Comment by The Letter A on 11 July 2007:
grammar check
Pingback by What Motivates Me as a Programmer » Ryan Price on 11 July 2007:
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Comment by Retrospector on 11 July 2007:
I wrote a very similar post about this time last year on motivating geeks. I think motivation of geeks/nerds/coders/programmers/whatever is difficult for some employers to understand, but it’s also known by many and just pushed aside as a secondary priority. You hit the nail on the head for the points you mentioned in my opinion. Good post.
Comment by John on 11 July 2007:
I don’t agree with your assumption that a “smart programmer” would prefer a new monitor to the money to buy a new monitor. If the company buys me a monitor and I leave, they keep the monitor. If I buy the monitor with the money they give me and I leave, the monitor comes with me. Seems like a no-brainer.
Comment by Mark on 11 July 2007:
I tend to think that, as a coder, I am more motivated by money than a large monitor or being taken out to lunch with the boss.
If people can’t afford me they can go fuck themselves. Why would I work for 17″ monitor when I can buy one myself?
Trackback by The Bleeding Edge on 11 July 2007:
Someone is working with bad programmers…
del.icio.us popular pointed me here which linked back here. Thats an ittoolbox blog! With a not very nice link to it. So I read the ittoolbox blog (the first one is pretty standard and ive talked about this before so……
Comment by daniel on 11 July 2007:
Who cares whether this reflects The Truth or not? It’s well written and funny, and I enjoyed it (and I’m a programmer too, and I hate meetings ;-))
Comment by Wynand Winterbach on 11 July 2007:
Jean-Baptiste Potonnier makes a good point (at least, this is what I read into it): don’t assume things about your programmers.
This is true for any kind of company. Managers who recognize employees as individuals and who make efforts to reward individuals according to their preferences, will see a beneficial effect.
For my part, I craved respect. I worked in a very noisy office. The monitors were CRTs, but I would gladly have continued using CRTs if they just did something about the continuous ringing of phones and if they could have cut down on the number of meetings and other frequent disturbances.
It comes down to stopping with this “subordinate” B.S. and seeing employees as valuable.
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Comment by Nick Halstead on 11 July 2007:
Thanks to everyone for some really great comments! too many for me to individually reply to but I have been overwhelmed by the response on here and by people using the contact form to get in touch.
My only regret is that it gave too much coverage to Tim Bryce (he wont get a link again) but I notice the comments have been very negative, he says he will be posting a article about on recruiting programmers, well Tim come read how to do it properly on here first, your ideas are 20 years out of date you should start up gardening instead rather than sour our industry with your comments about programmers.
(p.s. I notice he has not even included the pingback from my article to his) scared of something?
Comment by James Van Lommel on 11 July 2007:
Care to fix the sentence fragment “And should certainly not be attempting to write about how to manage them with views like the above.”?
I’m afraid that in my business world, the credibility of an unknown author varies directly with the quality of their writing. My manager would be less inclined to believe the claim you’re making if he feels you can’t write well, and it would be really nice to have a 24″ wide-screen flat panel…
Comment by Guy! on 12 July 2007:
I think for some people, such as myself, you are spot on with your assessment. Hell I’d just like to move away from the 17″ CRT and 3 year old computer at my work. And appreciation for what we do…yeah that’s a freaking joke. People who get the new computers…have only worked there…well they’ve just started.
Really enjoy the blog. Keep up the good work.
Comment by WebGyver on 12 July 2007:
Well, you know, as long as I can get a free T-shirt, free food or free gadgets, I’m usually pretty happy. Yes, the paycheck matters, of course, but by and large, most of the programmers I hang out with still grab every conceivable freebie at trade shows.
And, in all fairness, Nick’s article describes rather accurately how 90 percent of the development departments that I’ve seen (and worked in) over the past decade or so actually function.
Then again, we all live in different “realities” and may perceive our environments in a myriad of ways. Nick, as far as I’m concerned, I can only hope that my CEO will read this article. Thanks for a job well done.
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Comment by John Nunemaker on 12 July 2007:
Get out of my head. Scary.
Comment by fabiopedrosa on 12 July 2007:
Very good article.
Although I find the money a very appealing motivation (especially, because that’s what keep us going to work), Workplace Environment does play an important role.
Comment by T on 12 July 2007:
1. Respect
2. Interesting work
3. Room to solve problems
4. Ability to get code into production without 75 levels of test theocracy
5. Machinage
6. Ability to work with other smart programmers
7. Stupid programmers actually fired and not kept on, just getting in the way
8. Quiet, comfortable environment
9. Market rates
10. No big brother Internet watching/time card reporting/micro task statusing
Comment by Darth Sidious on 12 July 2007:
One other thing that we do in the Empire to ensure our programmers are working at 150% is an inverse approach.
Those who function below our standards are initially electrocuted by myself, and if they continue to fail the Sith, Lord Vader will choke them using the powers of the dark side.
Sometimes, to instill maximum fear, we’ll feed the lowliest of programmers to a Panna Monster in front of others…just so they get the message.
We’ve found this technique really helps to motivate our technical staff.
Comment by JTW on 12 July 2007:
How would you feel if you had (as a programmer) to work with a 5-10 year old machine with a tiny 12-14″ screen while even the boss’s secretary has a brand new machine with all the goodies?
And before you say that’s a hypothetical situation, it isn’t.
I’ve encountered it myself several times. Programmers (even in software firms) are usually at the very bottom of the pile and tend to get castoffs from other departments.
In this case sales and upper management got the very latest, when their equipment was upgraded every few months to a year it went to their secretaries, percolating down through human resources to project management, etc. etc. until several years later reaching the pit where the programmers were relegated to working in.
That was an extreme case, but to some degree it’s visible in most environments I’ve encountered over the last decade.
So much so in fact that programmers tend in my experience to purchase things from their own income just to have something decent to work with at the office (mostly laptops, keyboards, and software).
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Comment by Shenouda on 12 July 2007:
great subject ….
we can discuss what motivating programmers by Environment they work in, Benefits they have , how the Psychological factors affect Programmers at work ….
and how does that change from country to country …
so we can discuss what is the benefits that the country gives to the programmers ,
every one can tell us about the benefits in his country to programmers ..
Comment by Reuben on 12 July 2007:
Great article
I’m a programmer and in my opinion I think you got all the points right. I was really happy when i got my 2 20″ lcd monitors and yeah I get really bored when a meeting goes over 20 -25 mins.
Comment by Paul on 12 July 2007:
Wow! I just read Tim’s article, what the hell! Im speechless!
Comment by Juan on 12 July 2007:
Excellent article. Soooo true.
I’ve been developing on a 500MHz PC and that was in 2006! God, was that machine slow!
Nevertheless, management did not want to shell out the extra cash for that additional programmer before he’d proven he was worth his salt. Needless to say: I was out of there in a couple of months.
The daily meetings were such a killjoy. I just wanted to solve problems. Give me the clients needs and I’ll translate them to a database driven application.
The next job instantly gave me a laptop and a nice paycheck.
The multiple meetings (again) and the noisy environment (10 developers in a space smaller than my living room) made me bail out again.
My current job is noisy and cold (due to the sysadmins which I share the room with liking the cold very much). I’m thinking of switching jobs again.
Comment by Brad on 12 July 2007:
There are 2 kinds of programmers; those that are no different from other office workers, and those as you describe. The 2 are opposites. Maybe you’ve been fortunate enough to associate only with the latter…
Comment by RoLo on 12 July 2007:
OMG…. Nostradamus?
Comment by Kit on 12 July 2007:
In one of Scott McConnell’s books (can’t remember if it’s Code Complete or Rapid Development), he talks about what motivates programmers, and what managers think motivates programmers (and likewise what motivates managers and what programmers think motivates managers), and how out of alignment they all are.
IIRC, managers are motivated more by status and power, and programmers by public recognition of their skills and abilities. I think this is why many top programmers get a kick out of working voluntarily on well-known, high-kudos OSS projects and standards bodies.
Speaking for myself, I’m not that bothered by the speed of my laptop or size of my LCD screen, so long as it does the job. But I get mightily upset and demotivated if, given a job to do, a) I am not given the time to do it properly, or b) it gets dumped for reasons unrelated to me. The chance to solve interesting problems, and do it properly, is what motivates me the most.
Comment by jeremy on 12 July 2007:
It’s weird but there are a lot of similarities in the way graphic designers are treated in the larger companies as well. We also believe meetings are a waste of time. I’ve also noticed that many of the programmers where I work have side projects they do when they’re bored at work… I have a lot in common with that.
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[...] What motivates programmers? If you have a spare £400 in your development budget do you A) Reward your star programmer with a £400 bonus or B) Buy him a 24 Inch 1920×1200 LCD screen? (tags: management programming motivation productivity people employment) [...]
Comment by joe on 12 July 2007:
Yeay! The company is going to spend my bonus money on a piece of hardware they own! WTF!! Why wouldnt a smart programmer take the $400.00, buy the montior, then take it into work.. at least that way they own it!
Fool.
Comment by Walt on 12 July 2007:
Tim Bryce is absolutely correct, your average team of programmers are a bunch of hacks who abuse acronyms to sound elite but are nothing more than copy/paste gurus who poke at API code until it does what they want. There’s very few individuals out there who can actually program properly… thankfully true programming skills aren’t needed by your average companies day to day operations, all you need is a hack who can poke an API enough to get it to do what he wants.
Comment by Walt on 12 July 2007:
May I add that the ones who are fascinated by gadgets such as LCD monitors are usually the hacks who get by copying and pasting code. You are correct in that real programmers are interested in solving problems not playing with fancy gadgets.
Comment by Stuart Dallas on 12 July 2007:
@Walt: It’s not about “fancy gadgets”, it’s about having the tools you need to make solving the problem your focus while working. Battling against a slow machine or a shortage of screen real-estate takes a developers focus away from solving the problem and that doesn’t lead to high productivity regardless of the individuals skills.
Comment by Walt on 12 July 2007:
Stuart, you’re correct, decent equipment is necessary to get any job done properly. HoHowever this post doesn’t speak merely about decent equipment, it speaks about reward and rank through superior equipment. Owning or working on a great machine doesn’t make a a great programmer and true programmers don’t care whether they’re using a top of the line machine or one that simply allows them to get their work done properly.
Comment by Stuart Dallas on 12 July 2007:
Walt: I don’t think Nick is saying that superior equipment makes for better programmers. He’s saying that good programmers know that better equipment will make their lives better and if good work gets rewarded with better equipment then they’ll make the connection and that will motivate them.
There’s a huge difference between not caring about something and wanting it because it will make life easier. Where I am at the moment I’m working on a very basic machine which drives me nuts, but that doesn’t make me a bad programmer, it makes me a frustrated one. Having said that I don’t care too much, but I do know that if I was given a better machine I would be a happier programmer. I do know that happiness and not having to wait 2 minutes for my machine to switch between my mail client and my IDE will make me a more productive programmer.
At the end of the day it’s simple maths. It’s definitely cheaper to spend some cash on better machines than to have your programmers twiddling their thumbs while their tools catch up with them.
Comment by Stuart Dallas on 12 July 2007:
Oh, and on the whole rank thing… the best sales people drive the nicest cars to their sales meetings, so why can’t it be that the best programmers have big screens and fast machines to develop on? To me this makes sense.
I think it’s important to note that not everyone is alike. There are programmers out there for whom money is the biggest motivator, and that’s fine. But I’d prefer to work with a developer who’d take a bigger monitor or a faster machine over a bonus any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
Comment by Chris Smith on 12 July 2007:
Honestly, the article just got this part wrong. Walt’s praise of Tim Bryce is inexplicable, but the comments on hardware-as-reward in this article are equally silly. Any business should be providing their programmers whatever hardware makes them most productive as a matter of course; it shouldn’t be a reward for past performance. If the hardware is impacting a programmer’s ability to do good work, then the employer is throwing money away.
To give a programmer new hardware because it makes them look cool, though, has problems. (1) This isn’t what motivates many good programmers… though I’d stop short of Walt’s inferring anything negative because someone likes playing with hardware. (2) Joe is right that programmers who do like this sort of thing would probably rather buy the hardware themselves and just own it.
Comment by Stuart Dallas on 12 July 2007:
@Chris: Maybe if you’re in a company with a large budget for hardware. Unfortunately the vast majority of programmers work for smaller companies where hardware purchases are usually a compromise between cost and performance. We’re not talking about programmers who are given the option to get their dream machine for the office.
I think Nick’s opening statement is incorrect and that unfortunately leads to comments like Joe’s about a developer preferring to own the equipment. The choice is unlikely to be between getting new equipment or getting the equivalent value in cash. A company is more likely to offer less hard cash than they would be willing to spend on new equipment because cash is instantly lost whereas hardware depreciates. Your 400 quid monitor is probably worth less than 150 as a hard cash bonus.
Comment by Steve Parker on 12 July 2007:
I would largely agree with the article, heavily generalised as it is.
However, one thing which I would note, is the line that “some cope better with dealing with a higher ‘non-solving’ ratio of tasks than others. Understanding your programmers and who can cope with what level of ‘non-solving’ is important to keeping an overall smooth operation.”
Some people will take more crap than others, before they complain. It does not mean that they are any happier to do it, than those who complain earlier, they are just more “eager to please”. Take care to be very aware of how everybody actually feels about different tasks, not just the opinions of the loudest and most outspoken.
Comment by Fred Bob on 12 July 2007:
I think the differing views of Nick and Tim, in addition to the chaos of viewpoints that follow in these comments, demonstrate very solidly what Sturat Dallas has said - there isn’t an accurate “1 size fits all” answer on this topic.
I’ve been managing for 16 years, programming for (gasp) 33, and I’ve seen:
- poor & good programmers motivated by money
- poor & good programmers motivated by working conditions (I’ll include hardware in this)
- poor & good programmers make great managers
- poor & good programmers make poor managers
I’ve known senior top performers who worked on 6-year-old hardware by choice, because they didn’t want the fuss of rebuilding their system.
There just is no single answer. Any attempt to ignore that means you’re not doing your job as a manager, and you’re most likely hurting productivity and increasing attrition.
Treat your employees as individuals and coworkers, not subordinates. The job they do is as important as yours, just different. While you’re at it, treat your boss that way, too. Someone has to sit in the stupid meetings while you do the fun stuff.
Comment by Fred Bob on 12 July 2007:
(Stuart, sorry for the typo in your name in my last post)
One other thing on hardware upgrades… if you’re budget-constrained (can’t buy all the truly performance-enhancing equipment you should), I’ve always had good results with the developer who’s been at the company the longest getting first right of refusal, and then on down the line, regardless of their productivity or grade. It’s always seemed to work well, and has been perceived as fair.
Comment by Jorge on 13 July 2007:
I have to disagree I’ll take the 400 and buy the monitor for my house.
sidenote your theme has this ugly click thing, when I click the left it marks everything yuck
Pingback by Dongyi == 冬屹 » links for 2007-07-13 on 13 July 2007:
[...] The Programming and Management Blog » What motivates programmers? (tags: programming management motivation productivity psychology employment) [...]
Comment by Adam on 13 July 2007:
It sounds like someone doesnt like what they do. Im not sure you need the ‘extra’ perks in order to stay happy. Think about what you do for a living; sit at a desk in front of a computer and make things, and when youre not making things you are surfing the net, something that alot of people wish they could do, but cant. Personally I am thankful for my job as a developer.
Id go on, but my brain hurts, I had a long day.
Comment by Nick Halstead on 13 July 2007:
Joe, the question was not for the programmer to make, it was for the manager. And therefore the manager is certainly not going to be thinking ‘if I give this guy £400 will he buy something and then bring it into the office?’
I accept that the whole question is not the best example but as some of you have already stated (and in some cases much more eloquently than I could) that you cannot over simplify to this level as every programmer is different, but I think taking a quick poll from peoples reactions that at least 50% agree with me. (p.s. I liked ‘Get out of my head. Scary’)
And for the other 50% I would either not have have hired you (sorry but it’s probably true) or I would try and motivate you differently.
Pingback by The Programming and Management Blog » Quick Programming Poll: Self Taught VS College Taught on 13 July 2007:
[...] I have been really busy this week with development and replying to people after the response from What Motivates Programmers? which has been amazing. Although as I stated in the comments I was partly peeved that it gave Tim [...]
Comment by Alex on 13 July 2007:
You are crazy man. A LCD doesn’t motivate me at all. Give me money!
Comment by headwedge on 13 July 2007:
Bryce says: “There are very few true artists in computer programming,
most are just house painters” My friend quit his job as a house painter and now has an art degree, he’s no richer (yet) but is a lot happier. Another friend is still a decorator(not for long perhaps) but is having his first showing of his paintings in New York next year. So, never, ever underestimate your house painter!
Comment by KBac on 13 July 2007:
Super duper hardware is good to have, but it is really icing on the cool environment. IMHO, what really motivates is the interactions and technical challenges.
Trackback by Func. News on 13 July 2007:
What motivates programmers?…
http://blog.assembleron.com/2007/07/11/what-motivates-programmers/any resemblance to reality is pure coincidence …
Comment by David Mills on 14 July 2007:
I like your characterization of programmers as a bunch of loose nits.
Comment by Rob on 14 July 2007:
Outstanding! I was a programmer at one point and I now manage a larger group that includes software guys and you are right on the money with characterizing them.
Comment by Todd Jordan on 15 July 2007:
Nice piece. It sums up some key points I’ve seen here before and other places. The most important one for me is the nonsolve situations. Second is probably when the manager tells me how to solve a problem in the same meeting he asks me to do the design. Can’t you just put that in a table and do an If compare against blah blah blah. I just start nodding and scribble a doodle on my pad, and smile.
Good post.
Comment by !LogicalNot on 16 July 2007:
Perhaps you should change the title to “What motivates passionate programmers” because I see alot of responses from people who I’m sure are programmers but just dont care as much as the passionate ones. OR they failed to read your article in its entirety.
Comment by CDriK on 16 July 2007:
Nice article, it’s the first time I see these ideas clearly explained to non-programmers.
Comment by Kurt Frank on 16 July 2007:
Just a quick comment on rewarding a programmer with $400 cash or a $400 monitor.
I was actually asked by my boss once if I would prefer a new $2000 development machine or $2000 cash as reward for my good work. I took the cash.
Then I asked for a new development machine. My boss said that I just got a $2000 bonus. I said that I just got a $2000 bonus that benefits me. A new development machine would benefit the company.
Pingback by On Motivating Programmers | moraaz.org - feed all tech! on 16 July 2007:
[...] an article last week about motivating programmers, Nick Halstead [...]
Comment by Marco Gomes on 16 July 2007:
Very good!
Trackback by www.programame.net on 16 July 2007:
¿Qué motiva a los programadores?…
Interesante artÃÂculo sobre la gestión de programadores, creo que la premisa es básica, un programador no es un empleado más y no puede ser motivado con los mismos incentivos. Como dice el primer párrafo, si tuvieras dinero extra en tu presupuesto …
Comment by Gabe Chino on 17 July 2007:
Good article. True with most programmers. But I am only motivated by money
Comment by Shams Mahmood on 18 July 2007:
Excellent article,
I agree with most things you have said especially the
‘The appeal of solving a problem’ part
just great.
Comment by Sergiy (PHP/MYSQL/AJAX website designer) on 18 July 2007:
Hardware never motivates anybody, it only helps to be productive
But money isvery important too, it helps to be productive too 
Actually I do not think there is no much difference in programmers and other normal people. Just imagine motivation of a bookkeeper if each simple calculation takes 10 minutes!!! Will he stay motivated? Definitely no!
I am a programmer for many years and do not think that hardware is some king of fetish. It is a requirement. If you have good programmer, but slow equipment, than programmer cannot be productive even if he really wants to be. So, that is not a motivation - it is a requirement.
As for the problems to resolve - that is absolute truth
And lego helps a lot on the meetings 
Comment by futureboy on 18 July 2007:
I sincerely doubt that whoever wrote this article has actually asked the programmers which they’d rather have–a new monitor at work, or the money to buy themselves that new monitor. I was part of a very large survey of programmers at a previous job, and by far, the one thing that almost every single person pointed out is that we’d rather have more money, not more “perks” or a better laptop. Anyone who thinks otherwise is fooling themselves.
I used to work for an organization that, by rule, couldn’t spend extra year-end money on employees, but we could buy hardware for the office. So all we got were dissatisfied employees, who left the company for more money, and pretty good hardware.
Comment by Melvin R. Zamora on 18 July 2007:
What motivates programmers? Well, If you are a boss ask your programmers what motivates them. And if you are a programmer tell your boss what you want. Then your in - deal! What if not? Ah… its a another challenging problem to solve! Isn’t it motivating?
Comment by Nick Halstead on 18 July 2007:
futureboy, Well the company you worked for obviously attracted the wrong kind of programmer, just look through the comments and you will see a much greater number agreeing with me, I have run studios with 100+ developers and I can tell you first hand that I have asked the question and the response has always been better equipment, passionate programmers want to program and better equipment lets them do a better job of it.
If you are just doing it for a job and not for the enjoyment of programming, I suggest you go do something else.
Comment by pratyush sinha on 18 July 2007:
If you mean a programmer who actually wants to program then yes you are right but
a lot of people are there just because they are good at it not that they like it. In that case one comes under the above average category but still such things will fail to motivare me.
I will say too much of a generalisation.
Comment by Turt99 on 18 July 2007:
I didn’t find any of this to be true, except the problem solving part.
I’m a programmer, and I don’t want my computer are work to be upgraded if there is an option to have the value of the new monitor in my pocket. Sure a new computer would be nice, but money in my pocket is why I’m working for a living.
Also I enjoy meetings. I don’t want to have tons of pointless meetings but like someone above said what programmers need in meetings is meeting with other programmers to talk about programming related issue. My office doesn’t have any programmer meetings and it sucks because every programmer is on their own and knowledge is not being shared.
Ohh and I love programming, well maybe not programming exactly because syntax issues are annoying but I love the problem solving.
Comment by da phloidster on 19 July 2007:
i am a programmer; have been for over 30 years; what motivates me most is money
yes, i like problem solving, yes i like new hardware, and yes, i even like pizza
but if you are my manager and want to motivate and reward me, then show me the money! i expect good hardware just like you expect lights and telephones
it galls me that managers of all stripes get paid more to get in the way of what i do than i get paid to do the real work that creates the real value that the rest of the hierarchy is leeching off of
programmers deserve an order of magnitude more money than any manager
one of the measures i apply when considering a new job is the ratio of programmers to overhead (overhead = everyone who is not programming)
i once interviewed at a company that had 3 floors of offices and staff, and only 4 programmers supporting them all; needless to say i turned their offer down
Comment by T on 19 July 2007:
Yes, all of the developers want the money. Yes, they also want all of the toys (new monitor). The point of giving money is to let the developer know they’re appreciated. The point of giving toys (which stay in the office) is to let the co-workers know that that particular employee’s actions are appreciated.
If you give me the new monitor, you’re telling me that I’ve done a good thing for the company, and that you want other people to emulate. I personally want the cash, as well as the recognition of ability. To accomplish that, you need to give me both.
To satisfy both you could also give personal non-work-related toys which benefit the company, but are personal (and owned by the developer). For example, give me that shiny new cellphone with gps/mp3/etc built in. Etch a thank-you onto the back of it so when I leave it on my desk, people see “For all of your work on the BlahBlah Project, Company thanks you.” Now when I’m using it everyone will see it, and I personally gain too.
Comment by dark_questor on 19 July 2007:
For me, a $400 incentive is a short-term motivation while the hardware upgrade is for long-term. I still remember that after 2 months of giving me a bonus (only 2 of us received it from the whole team of 12) for a job well done, I left my previous job because they didn’t give me a system upgrade that I’m requesting for a long time.
I love the money but I can’t force myself to work on a system that crashes everytime and won’t let you open more than 5 applications at the same time. I’d rather shell out $100 a month from my previous salary in exchange with a decent machine that can cope with my skills.
I like solving problems… But how can I do that when my system won’t let me do what I want to accomplish. If I will stay in a company for 10 or more years, I prefer the one that will give my machine a yearly $600 upgrade than the one that give me $50 more on my paycheck but no upgrade for my whole tenure.
Comment by kid on 20 July 2007:
man that’s like borderline programmer prejudice lol, talk about stereotyping. some of that i agree with.
meetings in general are a waste of time, they’re a show to put on for the higher ups and a medium for people to ask questions to which the answers have no bearing on their work and will be forgotten the next day resulting in more wasting of my time.
micro managing does come off as questioning my competence. every software developer has their own routine, but everyone knows efficiency is key, so if you’re needing to micro manage me, you’re telling me i’m not being efficient, which is pretty much saying i can’t do my job … don’t do that unless you intend to lose an employee.
don’t however tell me what i would want, because a monetary reward is always better than a material reward, but there should always be an announcement so that everyone knows of the accomplishment. monetary wins though because i could care less what pos machine i’m working on at the office, i want something for me chosen by me.
software developers do in general have higher-iq’s because their math and logic oriented people. an iq test primarily evaluates a persons ability to follow logic, patterns and solve mathematical problems, if you’re a developer and you’re not better then the average person at those categories it’s probably time to consider another career.
most developers i’ve met also do have relatively large ego’s … when their work comes into question, it’s rare i find them condescending as your article suggests we all are.
Comment by Steve on 20 July 2007:
Good article, but its point is weakened by poor grammar. That is, be careful with “you’re” vs “your” and “who” / “whom”. “You’re” means “you are,” whereas “your” means “belonging to you.”
And no, I am not an English teacher.. I myself am a programmer.
Comment by Nick Halstead on 20 July 2007:
Steve, of 80+ comments you are the only person complaining about my bad grammar
Comment by Jrock on 21 July 2007:
As a high school senior and programmer id like to point you to a competition, no one participating in this competition is getting money, however, as of writing this 152 people had submitted something to the competition. All of these programmers are motivated SOLELY by an interesting challenge.
http://www.topcoder.com/longcontest/?module=ViewStandings&rd=10859
Comment by Satya Prakash karan on 21 July 2007:
Intrested article. I agree with the article.
Comment by Vasiliy Sharapov on 21 July 2007:
Allow laptops to replace/augment the machine you give them, that way if they really need better hardware, they will buy it.
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Pingback by Software Creation Mystery » Programmers are lazy capricious pseudo-intellectuals. Really? on 30 July 2007:
[...] doesn’t like programmers. Many programmers don’t like him either (here, here, here, here and probably in many other places). Mr. Bryce’s view of [...]
Comment by Jakob on 30 July 2007:
This is exactly what I expected to find out after reading the title o.us poetry. Thanks for informative article
Comment by Wii Player on 30 July 2007:
We have a star of the week award, the top coder gets a lousy paper badge to put on the desk. Meanwhile the sales team we do the work for get fat bonuses. How unfair, maybe one day (hopefully before i leave) i will be appreiciated and not have to do 10 jobs as well as mine. On the whole I’m motivated by food and fun, office jokes and games keep me smiling.
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Comment by MICHAEL J. SCHMITZ on 4 August 2007:
I’M NOT A PROGRAMER. I’M A PATENTED INVENTOR, BUT WHAT I WAS THINKING IS LATTER ON WHEN WHEN I GET A LITTLE MORE EXPERIENCE ON THIS COMPUTER, THEN MAYBE WE CAN HELP EACH OTHER, SO WHAT I’S LIKE YOU TO DO IS EMAIL ME SO I’LL HAVE YOUR NAME, TITLE, AND EMAIL. THANKYOU
Comment by Nathan on 10 August 2007:
I appreciate your criticism of Bryce. He’s a moron. However, beyond that I think your article is somewhat naive.
Here’s the real truth. If a new $700 monitor helps me actually do my job even 1% better, the company would be stupid not to buy one for me regardless of my performance. Simple math shows that to be a good investment. If it doesn’t help, I don’t care about it. So, if you haven’t already outfitted your developers with the best tools, you don’t have extra money in the budget. If money is so tight you can’t provide your programmers with the best tools, you hired too many programmers. Better to hire just one less, and have dual 24-inch monitors and high-speed quad-core computers for everyone else–IF they would benefit from those things. Different tasks call for different tools. After all, if you can hire 10 programmers, and get 10% more out of each just by buying $60,000 worth of equipment, that’s better than hiring 11. Save whatever you would have spent over $60,000 on that 11th developer, and apply it to making your developers happy.
Now, as far as making your developers happy goes, sorry, but there’s no one-size-fits-all answer. The kid just out of college living in an apartment by himself might care more about toys. The guy in his 30s with a wife and two kids and another on the way will care about MONEY and benefits like good health insurance. Someone else will appreciate a gift certificate to a nice restaurant. But all these are guesses based on stereotypes, and, here’s a secret, most people don’t like to be stereotyped. It’s insulting and dehumanizing. In other words, you’re not going to be able to get around learning about the people you manage.
Often, the best thing to do is give them ALL these things. Nice gifts, excellent pay, and great benefits.
That’s what the company I work for does. The last company I worked for wasn’t bad, but I _felt_ kind of “nickel-and-dimed” when it came to the initial salary offer, the benefits and other perks. I never felt motivated (past the first couple months) to give them anything extra. This company, however, offered me a HIGHER salary than I was even planning on asking for and great benefits. We also get nice gifts. In addition, _whatever_ I need to get the job done–training, tools, etc.–is provided post haste–I just have to ask. In addition, the people I work with care about me as a person. My manager was extremely sympathetic when my dog died. Told me to take whatever time I needed. Can I even tell you how much BETTER a deal this company is getting than the last company I worked for? I go home mentally exhausted, but feeling good, every day because I really care about doing well for this company that’s done so well by me. Often, after a little downtime to refresh, if I don’t have too much going on at home, I’ll fire up my laptop and work on some code reviews or other work that is easy to do over a remote connection. And they notice it, and reward me with great bonuses and raises, and so I continue to strive to be deserving of more. The company I work for can do this because they are very careful and selective about their hiring. They hire good people, and then treat them exceptionally well, both professionally and personally.
And THAT’S the way to motivate programmers–and anyone else, I think.
Comment by Nick Halstead on 10 August 2007:
Nathan, When writing anything like this you have to by definition generalize a bit. But I have been developing and managing and have hired in the region of 250+ programmers and interviewed thousands (scary thought) and so I do not think I can be accused of being Naive.
Of course different people are motivated by different things, but being a programmer myself lets me understand other programmers minds and motivations much more than if I was not a programmer and a manager.
Comment by Average on 18 August 2007:
Yeah, ‘programmers’. Maybe 20 years ago this was correct, but now programmers are average just as any other college-educated people, the generalization here cripples the whole point.
btw, I loved the Lego idea.
Comment by Wii Player on 20 August 2007:
Hey guess what! Since I last wrote here my company has actually bought a trophy to engrave with star of the week awards! I would have prefered a cash prize alternative or a prize/gift PS3 or Xbox elite
Comment by nyte3k on 11 October 2007:
As a developer I do enjoy being rewarded with nice hardware from time to time, but although we my be looked at as nerds, or even consider ourselves so, we still like to enjoy life outside of work, which is why I believe money is a bigger motivator.
Personally, i don’t think any company could pay me enough or reward me enough to guarantee that i’d stay “forever”. I have began to learn, i’d rather work on my own projects, use technology i want, and work my own schedule. Which is why i will begin working for myself in a couple months.
The ultimate reward, is being your own boss!! Because then you can afford the 30″ LCD, and the Audi A8 in the lot.
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[...] What Motivates Programmers?: Gain a better understanding of what programmers want in this article. [...]
Comment by EllisGL on 22 October 2007:
I think that programmers should not get the top of the line equipment, because if they do - it would be like designing a car to drive the autobahn at super high speeds instead building a car that commutes back and forth to work and home in traffic.
The fastest development server I have is 2.4 GHz AMD Sempron With less than a gig of ram in it. The dev server that is mostly used I think is a 1.7 GHz Celeron box with 512 meg of ram. If can make the code run smoothly on an older box - I know it’s going to zoom on a modern box.
Comment by Viktor Nordling on 23 October 2007:
Having a slow computer, or in any other way having delays in your workflow is a huge demotivator. This includes, but is not limited to, slow unit tests, long build process, long startup time for systems being worked on and so on.
What the employer should do is always provide really fast computers. The programmers and CM should make sure that the unit tests are not becoming too slow and that the build process / startup time of systems is reasonable.
Pingback by Null is Love » Blog Archive » What Motivates Programmers on 30 October 2007:
[...] What Motivates Programmers [...]
Pingback by why? « while(Thread.IsAlive) { this.DoBetter(); } on 2 November 2007:
[...] intelligent, unimaginative person that should not be trusted. See what that is all about, here and a much better description of how to motive / manage developers Posted by restless-developer Filed in reason Tagged: [...]
Comment by Martin on 14 November 2007:
If you have an extra £400 in your budget, I’d like you to upgrade my monitor and give me the remainder as a bonus!
I would like to think I am in the ‘above-average’ bracket. I just don’t like this attitude that you can reward us geeks with just more hardware, but that we would make us satisfied with a lower wage.
Martin
Comment by Mikey on 28 November 2007:
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I just added you to my favorites.
Thanx,
Mikey
Pingback by techblog.tilllate.com » What motivates your programmer?- on 4 December 2007:
[...] Nick Halstead (one of my favourite bloggers) posted a inspiring article about this topic on his blog a while ago. Filed under: Management [...]
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Comment by Jeremiah on 18 February 2008:
Sorry, but I completely disagree with you.
I love to write code. But when I’m at work I’m not doing it because it’s fun, or because I enjoy it. I’m doing it to get paid. If that weren’t the case, I could have 100x more fun by just staying home and writing code there.
If it’s a choice between a $400 bonus or a shiny new monitor, I’ll take the $400 every time.
Comment by Stuart on 18 February 2008:
@Jeremiah: You don’t enjoy your job? Maybe time to think about changing it.
For me, whether I’m in it for the money or the enjoyment I would never stay in a job I wasn’t enjoying - life’s far too short!
Comment by Josh on 19 February 2008:
Do any other programmers out there feel it would be a tad demeaning if there were legos layed out for the programmers during the meeting?
Comment by Arun on 19 February 2008:
Ugh. Tim Bryce really needs to study others who have made their fortunes from software.
What motivates programmers? This question is not very interesting to me.
What *is* an interesting question is, what motivates GOOD programmers? Quite simply, its this:
- The chance to work in a flexible environment on interesting problems, creating interesting software.
- The chance to work with and learn from other talented and passionate practitioners of their craft.
- Recognition for their intellectual accomplishments. If you feel that programming does not require above-average intelligence, I welcome you to try your hand at writing the next Google or Oracle or Linux.
- A sense of mission, of coding for a cause. E.g., open source software, and again, Google.
- The ability to profit immensely from good work. E.g., early stage startups.
Tim Bryce may be a good administrator for clerk-level programmers, but with his mediocre understanding of software development dynamics, don’t expect him to put together a world-class software development team just yet. To paraphrase Bill Gates, mediocrity begets mediocrity. No talented software professional would want to work with or hire someone like Tim Bryce.
Comment by ferdhie on 19 February 2008:
yup, agreed. meetings are useless, as one said:
“Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings, they did it by killing all those who opposed them.”
haha, great article anyway …
Comment by Sebastian Val on 21 February 2008:
Personally, I’d have to agree with some of the above comments on preferring money to hardware. As long as the hardware is efficient enough to get the job done, I could care less. Paychecks are a whole different story, if it turns out the programmer in the next cubicle who is churning out code that couldn’t pass an audit conducted by a monkey is making twice my pay but I have a much nicer computer, you still better be damn sure I’m about to be PISSED. I’d have to estimate that higher salaries and better benefits or options would generally be more well received than some hardware upgrades. I like to keep my uber geeky new hardware at my house, where I can enjoy it.
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[...] fun read on What motivates programmers? I will start with a question, if you have a spare £400 in your development budget do you A) Reward [...]
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Comment by Rick on 4 April 2008:
Nick,
I am a programmer, been like that for years. I think Tim’s article had valid points, i have seen way too many programmers who have low IQ on things but they have a large ego. During my career s