Ask HN: As an engineer, is your brain corrupted by money?

I recently discovered that my brain's incentives had been 'corrupted' by money.

Earlier, when I used to program for fun and for zero money, I was enjoying it a lot and pursued it solely out of curiosity.

Then I started getting paid (relatively) big bucks. I kept telling myself that this was all a side-effect of the curiosity.

But it turns out that now, a high-enough pay raise is enough to discourage me from pursuing mastery.

Maybe my preference has shifted from mastery to delivery, but I am not sure if I like that.

So, how do you, as an Engineer, undo this 'corruption' of incentives to your brain by money?