Re: Why open source?

I recall what my Micro-Economics Professor at the UofU once said: "It is all about maximizing joy".

I absolutely agree with that, so the reconciliation is that any pursuit it based on maximizing joy. Some folks focus on earning money to buy joy. Some just get joy from sharing. Some are somewhere on that spectrum. Some find it conditional (will to give on some things and not willing to on others).

Aaron seems to reflect where I am, and it was about 20 years ago that I decided the that the joy of "working for the man" just wasn't there and started working for myself or starting companies that I had ownership in (cleverly cutting my salary in half and never really recovering those lost earnings). About 10 years ago I started to explore Open Source and started giving away some of what I guess I could have sold (maybe) and thus giving up even more income (or at least the potential). But I couldn't be more at peace nor have more joy. Every day I look forward to the work I do. Not many folks can say that. So it all comes down to joy. Whatever floats your boat.

Yeah, I'd love to make it big and have someone buy the Attendance Management System that I *do* sell (on rare occasions, I am not a good sales person). But I would still do what do now.

Pete

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." Jim Elliot


On 6/3/2010 3:48 PM, Nathan Andelin wrote:

From: Aaron Bartell
Awhile back we had discussion about why in the heck someone would
want to give away source without much, if any, monetary or business
return.

I could relate to the video, too. Individuals pursuing activities that require thinking, and especially creativity, need and value autonomy and self-direction. And we're willing to sacrifice money, for it.

But individual ownership is a big motivator, too; reaping from that which you sew; which may not mesh with your ideas about open-source. How would you reconcile that?

BTW, I appreciated your comment on Steve Wills blog, as well as other places, promoting the idea of micro-partitioning IBM i servers in small enough slices, that individual programmers might afford autonomy, self-direction, and individual ownership of work product. Too many IBM i programmers are stuck with working only on employer's servers, where the employer controls the manner and means, so to speak.

-Nathan.