While I'm promoting things, my Retrospective Magic video course is still 50% off this week, for Black Friday.
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Do we want to do the bare minimum or do we want much better than that?

I've written more about this motivation model:
unconsciousagile.com/2023/05/21/m...

We could give them what they're asking for, or we could try to get them even further to the right. The best results would come from being Intrinsically motivated, but anything further to the right will be a win.

When someone is asking for a deadline, that tells us that they're currently Amotivated and they want at least some motivation. That deadline will shift us into External motivation which will at least get us moving forward, even if it's the least effective way possible.

The Self-Determination Theory (SDT) motivation model identifies six different stages of motivation ranging from Amotivation (not motivated at all) all the way through to Intrinsic (the work is enjoyable for it's own sake).

I'm talking about what I've observed. I've been programming for forty years and coaching and training programmers for twenty and there are some patterns that I see over and over. Both in myself and in the people around me.

That's fair. I live in a country where it's illegal to call yourself an engineer if you aren't formally trained in engineering so it tends to be a hot button here.

Are you assuming that programming is engineering? Very few programmers have any training in engineering. Few understand any but the simplest stats. They do all have a grasp of logic, although in many cases, that’s intuitive without any formal training.