I've made my peace with the realization that motivation is something very physical, mostly related to dopamine. Many people like to manipulate that with caffeine, nicotine, methylphenidate etc. Some can achieve things with lower levels/activation. But in the end, there's not way completely around it.

There was a time in my life where I took huge doses of Isotretinoin, a compound that is known to disrupt the dopamine system. And I was barely able to do anything. Even "fun" activities like watching my favorite show were out of the question.

> Being curious, is way more sustainable.

Curiosity is motivation. The arguments against motivation only work if you constrain its definition to whether you "feel like doing something today", but that's a very shallow definition and motivation really runs much deeper than that.