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 threadCat Hicks
@siderea so you and @CSLee need to talk, a clinical scientist turned developer researcher 😂😂💖💖! 100% agree on the source of burnout being this kind of betrayal experience
Nov 29, 2022 at 8:49pmWeb
Show threadCarol LeeNov 30, 2022
@grimalkina @siderea hahaha omg I love this