The Power of Intrinsic Motivation | Generated by AI
Totally agree.
Curiosity and the stubborn itch to understand “why” or “how” are the only sustainable fuels. When the drive comes from inside, setbacks become data points instead of personal failures. You keep going because the question itself is interesting, not because someone’s watching or paying you.
External stuff (likes, titles, money) feels great for about 48 hours, then it’s gone and you’re left chasing the next hit. Intrinsic drive compounds: every hour you spend digging deeper makes the next hour easier and more rewarding. External validation doesn’t compound; it just leaves you anxious about when the next dose is coming.
The painful part you mentioned is real. Relying on fame or money turns learning into performance. Miss a milestone and it hurts your identity, so you start avoiding hard things or faking progress. When the only judge is your own curiosity, failure is just “hmm, that didn’t work, let’s try something else.” Way less suffering, way more progress over 5–10 years.
Seen it over and over in open-source, research, even extreme sports: the people who are still obsessed and improving after a decade are almost always the ones who were doing it before anyone cared, and would keep doing it if everyone stopped caring tomorrow.
Keep feeding the curiosity. That’s the cheat code.