Cat HicksNov 29, 2022
So here's one of the things I'm super interested in that's coming out of our recent pilot research with software teams: there's a big difference between "things that are hard, but we're good at solving them" and "things that are hard, in a way that absolutely kills our motivation."
Show threadCat HicksNov 29, 2022

I think there's a lot of talk in the industry about "developer experience" and easing friction and I get that and believe in that -- but I'm always struck by how, when you ask several hundred developers if they believe they can solve hard problems....they DO believe this! They solve hard problems all the time!

But certain kinds of "hard" are a killer--cascading demotivation for people.

Show threadCat HicksNov 29, 2022
A lot of what we've studied about motivation with *students* in school focuses on helping them get over that first kind of hard -- individual self-efficacy. But developers score REALLY HIGH whenever you ask them to answer self-efficacy measures!! This is wonderful to me. What a cool gift. What a cool feature of this community.
Show threadCat HicksNov 29, 2022

This also has implications for where motivation "lives" in the system of software engineering. Yes, individual self-efficacy is always a good thing to encourage. But I am not sure it's what software teams truly deeply NEED, as much as they need support and protection against the second kind of hard.

What's the second kind of hard? Well we're working on identifying that, but there are pretty clear trends.

Show threadCat HicksNov 29, 2022
Sneak peek from our pilot research: this "second kind of hard" seems to bubble up for people when they say, "I had to repeat all this work again because no one remembered a previous project." or "yeah I solved an amazing technical issue, and then I found out I was working on the wrong part of the code because someone had changed x and hadn't told me." It's core motivational stuff about whether you feel SUPPORTED.
Show threadSiderea, Sibylla BostoniensisNov 29, 2022
@grimalkina Hey there! I was a software developer, and now am a psychotherapist. I am given to understand there is research finding the same thing in psychotherapists. Outsiders assume that psychotherapist burnout is a product of the high exposure to distressed patients and listening to horrors. While vicarious traumatization is a thing, burnout comes from feeling unsupported/undermined by management.
Show threadSiderea, Sibylla Bostoniensis
@grimalkina This has a lot of face validity for therapists. Sitting with traumatized pts is just what we do, it's an ordinary Tuesday, and most of us are pretty accomplished at handling that. That's the good kind of hard. But junior therapists often have to (in some places by law) work in institutions that are outrageously exploitative and abusive and typically contemptuous of their front-line medical professionals.
Nov 29, 2022 at 8:48pmWeb
Show threadSiderea, Sibylla BostoniensisNov 29, 2022

@grimalkina I've spent a lot of time on the net over the last few years in a forum for therapists, supporting junior therapists through burnout. It's an endemic problem.

We also have a term we use for a phenomenon we experience: being deskilled. It describes how someone who is being treated as incompetent or worthless by others loses access to their advanced clinical skills. The do not perform their job duties well, and seem to be bad at their jobs when this happens to them.

Show threadCat HicksNov 29, 2022
@siderea wow this is a compelling way to put it. I have seen this connection before but not thought of using a term like this, thank you
Show threadSiderea, Sibylla BostoniensisNov 29, 2022
@grimalkina You're very welcome. I assume there's literature on this, but I haven't seen it for myself.