Nurturing intrinsic motivation

Last month, I started learning how to make homemade ramen. The goal was simple, make something edible.

Now I'm getting pretty good at making ramen. And my interest is starting to peter out. I'm not waking up thinking about where to source local chickens anymore. I'm no longer rifling through amazon for better fridge storage containers in my free time.

I really didn't want this to happen.

It happens to so many things in my life. There's a surge of excitement at the start and then I get bored and move onto something new. There's a distinct boundary where something goes from pulling you along effortless to where you have to start dragging in.

Why does this happen? Are there pre-conditions that make some interests last longer? Can you control this stuff or is surfing a better metaphor here? Do you just swim out and wait for a good wave? We seem to have surprisingly limited vocabulary around the subtleties of intrinsic motivation.

Csikszentmihalyi's flow model was the best I could find. It's not perfect but it does offer some insight. The idea is that stuff get boring because you get better at it. To keep things interesting you have to line up new challenges for yourself.

So I sat down and thought about what make ramen interesting again. What would the next level look like?

I've decide to learn how to make my own katsuobushi: tuna that's poached, smoked and then fermented. A key ramen ingredient that so hard to find in India.

I just bought a smoke box and a tiny barbecue. I've started rifling through amazon for different kinds of wood chips to smoke with. Booked myself into a fermentation workshop at local arts festival later this week.

I have to admit, this does feel exciting again.