I'm experiencing a minor burnout at work, so I've decided to work less and spend more time on my side projects, hang out with people, and do more fun in general. My question: what motivates, excites, and inspires you? (thoughts, personal stories, or specific links are much appreciated)

Increasing the range of things that the human mind can build and accomplish! That’s why I’m spending my time in PL research. I’ve come to realise that there are huge strides that can be made; we just need more people working on the problem, and more variance in approach!

Nearly every day I take a three to five mile walk outdoors (alone, which really helps me clear my mind and forces me to focus on myself and what I feel: thankfully my wife accommodates me in this regard!). I find that it helps me center myself in the world and forces me to walk away from any issues I happen to be experiencing in that moment (work-related or otherwise). Music and podcasts also help me get away from my own thoughts, as do books and side-projects (although I tend to avoid immersing myself too far in the latter because it can lead me to obsess over them). Doing a variety of activities and tasks that challenge me in different ways is my key to feeling energized and motivated, but it all starts with my walks :)

To follow up Chris on the zen stuff that help me freeing my mind from issues, etc.: I like cooking (and then eating what I have cooked of course) it helps me focused on manual things with a good balance between simple repetitive tasks with a bit of creativity. I find it relaxing.

This is an odd one, but this video inspires me. Imagine trying to convince a farm worker 200 years ago that this level of efficiency would be possible. Imagine the equivalent manual work.

A couple months ago I started a nightly routine of asking "what was life-giving today?". It's really helped me to identify the activities that really light me up, or provide me fuel. Those things that leave me with more energy then when I started them. The biggest surprise I had here was doing physical activities while listening to an audiobook as a daily practice is highly rewarding for me. I'm talking about things like cleaning the garage, yardwork, etc. On the coding side of things, I'm really lit up by the idea of giving developers freedom of notation where we can read/write any function using whatever notation best serves our ability to think about that problem.