Re: Free Software Development, Money, and the Hacking Experience

[PsychoSpunk]

Would you also agree that money is a poor motivator for producing good code?

Money is not a motivator. It is a distraction. It is a necessary evil. Software development is often described as an art. Artists are often known as getting little recognition, tough times, scraping by. So money obviously is not a factor to them. I had a roommate in college who was an artist. He was constantly broke, and indebted to many people. He enjoyed making his art, and he had some really cool sculptures that made our dorm simply strange. Similarly, I never felt the need to demand payment for my ability. It simply happened that I would get paid, and it would be enough to continue doing what I love.

I have a story that I like to tell to people concerning friends of mine in school that saw that I was a capable person in CS without trying, whereas they struggled through their Liberal Arts degree. Inevitably, we all have that friend who comes to you and says that s/he's changing majors to CS because s/he likes to play with computers. The sentence that follows betrays their true intentions however. If the next words are, "Plus, programmers get paid a whole lot more than x.", you should, as a friend, advise them that they are making a mistake. If the next sentence is not related to the money, they may be doing the right thing.

Do you find that the free software you develop overall tends to provide a better learning experience/more fun/more satisfying than your day job?

I find the personal projects make it worthwhile. Even if I wasn't working in a development position, I'd still come home to a nice cozy personal interest. That's equivalent to the English teacher who comes home to work on his own novel, or the Chemistry teacher who gets home and works in his toolshed, or any other person who wants to do nothing more than work on a personal hobby. This is what they love, and it doesn't have to necessarily coincide with what they do, but the important thing is that it is therapeutic. Can't attribute this properly, but, "It's called work because it is."

Do you have any particularly interesting anecdotes to share about your experiences in free software?

No, next question. :)

Can a career in free software development a.) be possible, b.) be more fruitful (happiness-wise) than proprietary development?

a) It depends on who you are. I'm not suggesting you have to be ESR, but he's done it. He was doing it before "Open Source" made it into the limelight. He's got controversial views. But he's doing it.

Go read his website, and see the secrets that he reveals. I do remember reading on his page (or an interview) about how he is able to pull it off. If anything, that's a starting point.

b) Of course. That's a rhetorical question if you've gotten this far.

Good Luck, in whatever your path leads you to. But I think it's obvious that you already know what you want to do. The question is can you?

ALL HAIL BRAK!!!