I mean, the answer is agency. You enjoy doing things that you choose to do—which you choose to do because you enjoy them, it’s just a tad selective and cyclic there.
Most people don’t choose to work because they enjoy it; they work to survive, doing what the market will support.
Some few very very lucky people get to do work they would otherwise choose to do anyways.
From what I remember from college, I think what you’re talking about is mostly about intrinsic motivation vs. extrinsic motivation, into which there’s a lot of research. Just adding it in case someone wanted to look more into it, and was looking for some keywords.
It’s one of the things that’s worth knowing about, because you can somehow work around it to get motivated better, and it’s one of the more important topics in game design. So, in general a usefull piece of psychology knowledge.
I mean, the answer is agency. You enjoy doing things that you choose to do—which you choose to do because you enjoy them, it’s just a tad selective and cyclic there.
Most people don’t choose to work because they enjoy it; they work to survive, doing what the market will support.
Some few very very lucky people get to do work they would otherwise choose to do anyways.
From what I remember from college, I think what you’re talking about is mostly about intrinsic motivation vs. extrinsic motivation, into which there’s a lot of research. Just adding it in case someone wanted to look more into it, and was looking for some keywords.
It’s one of the things that’s worth knowing about, because you can somehow work around it to get motivated better, and it’s one of the more important topics in game design. So, in general a usefull piece of psychology knowledge.
Stuff like this is why I come here. Thank you for taking the time to post.
Nailed it.