Well then yeah it'd be tough for you.
As for myself I don't usually think about the difficulty and amount of effort I put into getting my game to work finished and just get to it.
Then again I've never thought of myself as a quitter so I never let the compiler defeat me and stick to it until I figure it out or determine it's a bug with said compiler,language,book,etc.
I think constant feedback not only from the users but from the compiler(it straight up tells you when you screwed up which I don't get offended at since I'm a perfectionist and it just motivates me to do better next time).
If I can make a living i.e. money doing it and people actually like it that's just gravy or icing on the cake for me since I'm doing it primarily for my own edification/gratification.
If I didn't find it so I would've quit a long time ago like Bill Gates vs Torvalds Linus or John Carmack that have stated they will keep programming until it isn't fun anymore. If I actually stopped to ponder ,as you have, about what I actually created after all the effort I have spent programming I'd probably be depressed too but still continue since it continues to provide a outlet/flow for me like painting,writing,etc for others.

p.s. I think you will find the art of creating anything worthwhile will require some effort(how long did it take to paint the Mona Lisa for instance? I heard it was a lot of years and he was a genius and master painter)
Do you think Leonardo ever thought of giving up or quitting that painting?
I doubt it since he probably breathed and lived to paint.
In your case it sounds like programming isn't that driving force for you and you need to look around and find out what is?

It seems like a silly meaningless answer, but I do it because its fun. If it wasn't fun, I'd never spend this much time on it. Also, I find that as I finish projects, my funs diminishes actually.

Quote:Original post by Cl0vis
Just wondering what kind of mentality a developer would need to be successful. I know I don't really have what it takes, I rarely find the creation of anything to be satisfying mainly because the learning process is usually difficult it takes time and what comes out at the end although good is never enough to warrent the effort involved to create it.

I was just wondering what makes developers satisfyed by what they do or if infact you are satisfyed? Is it really just that you have made a game and people give positive comments or that you earn some money from it. Why do you do it?

Be aware that many companies dont operate in a miode that let you be satisfied with what you produce. Schedules and funding limitations often cause products to be half finished (but working 'good enough' to get by).

Ive been professionally both a Programmer/Designer and a QA tester and Ive seen too much crappy code/applications that were a far ways from being what they could and should have been before being sold.

Unfortunately that is the real world. Too many times Ive played a game and have seen incredible problems and lack of quality which could/should have been
fixed, but past a certain point the game company simply stops doing patches (like after the 2nd one) leaving the game forever in that shoddy state.

"Developers" is kind of a big generic title that applies to millions, literally, of different people.
For instance my wife writes code, she doesn't do it for fun, she does it because it pays the bills.

I write code because I've had the goal of being a game developer since 1982,
and I'm not going to let the opportunity to do that slip away another few decades
just becase coding or even creating graphics is a difficult and often an unrewarding experience.

You have to be willing to learn, constantly, even if it takes forever for a thing to sink in.
You have to be willing to put in the extra effort that it takes to get to each new step in the process.

This applies to everything in life really, not just 'developers'.

If you have a learning or concentration disability that prevents you from
reading large amounts of alien information at a time, then you have to
learn to take things in smaller doses, take notes, and search other
material out that is similar but different enough so that
your brain has enough information to make logical associative connections
and be prepared for new information.

Game development and software engineering isn't for everyone.

But you better have some goal in life and be able to work toward it at
the cost of all fun and happiness (once in a while), or else
you will achieve nothing and become some kind unwanted,
burden on society like a homeless derelict or politician.