@jsbarretto 100% for sure. If I didn't have to work for money (and I too like my employer a great deal), I wouldn't. I would give my brain away freely, make cool things, share them, and help others.

The number of boosts this is getting implies that a lot of folk feel similar, and that's sad.

@jsbarretto

a perfect case in point for #UBI (Universal Basic income)

@jsbarretto What did it for me was to decide to maximize the alignment of my professional and social goals.

Doesn't mean there aren't compromises but much much happier.

@jsbarretto yeah, that's how capitalism works

@jsbarretto getting to work on open source for a living, and in some of my favorite projects too, has been the best experience in my career. I wish more people could, and I hope we’ll get to see more options for people to make a living in open source.

@jsbarretto I realized about a week ago that because I've contributed to the Elixir language, and Truth Social runs on Elixir, I've contributed to Truth Social. Honestly my contributions have been so small that few people have probably ever noticed them, but if they were substantial this would really give me pause.

@jsbarretto I can assert the same for myself.

It is indisputable that I've contributed far more to society through #FreeSoftware than work.

This is also why the whole "contributing to society" notion being tied with employment in my country's culture rings like hollow bullshit (capitalism brainworms is the problem).

@jsbarretto

I agree with this 100%.

Thanks for putting it out there.

@jsbarretto totally agree. Too easy to feel like a robot when you're a paid employee!

@jsbarretto that's because we don't work for money. We negotiate for it.

@jsbarretto it's sort of the opposite for me. My "great benefits to society have probably been OSS contributions, but definitely stuff I only did because of the day job. Contributing to csv libraries, logging libraries, documenting something in #appveyor that the author didn't know, Microsoft documentation, etc. And a few stackoverflow questions and answers.

More people have been impacted by all that than all the things I did for fortune 500 companies

@jsbarretto I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU MEAN!

@jsbarretto
I'm super lucky to work in a job that I believe helps people, but it took me over 10 years of work to find that place. Until then, I was definitely in your position and even worked a few places that made me feel like I was making the world worse. 😕

@jsbarretto the book Bullshit Jobs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit_Jobs addresses this directly, I’d recommend a read. It’s also interesting to me that a lot of people in the technology space seem to have a hobby that is completely unrelated to tech and very hands on (in reference to your furniture comment).

@jsbarretto Interesting, opposite for me. The need for work and to provide for my loved ones motivates me to further develop my skills and brings my positive influence to a broader audience. I hope someone wealthy decides to sponsor your open source work.

@jsbarretto
I felt the same as long as I was working as a SW dev in the automotive industry doing fancy stuff on steering wheel switches.

Then I dedicated my work to the renewable energy sector, not exactly my former profession but so much more important for the world of our kids. Even paid less it is much mor satisfactory.

@jsbarretto
I agree with everything except the word "almost"

@jsbarretto Work for an open source company ;)

@jsbarretto Businesses whose infrastructure depends on open source software should be willing to pay for timely and professional support and development of features they need. Some OS businesses, e.g. Saxonica sell product specific support. Others, eg. Red Hat, cover needs of a much wider range of customers.

@jsbarretto I feel the same way. It's not only better for society, but also personally incredibly more rewarding. However making a living doing FOSS works has been challenging. This is why I hope @nivenly will succeed with their overarching goals.

@jsbarretto Likewise here

@jsbarretto A) life is too short, if you aren't fulfilled in your work, change jobs B) it's also fine to be more fulfilled by your life outside your job, it doesn't mean your job is useless.

@jsbarretto I wish more people realised this, I believe there is no reason for proprietary/closed software to even exist. In the long run FOSS always wins, proprietary eventually dies forgotten. Sure some proprietary products emerge becoming popular. Eventually some FOSSware will integrate the neato features and pass the companies counting their profits to have the bigger install base. It’s even sadder that you’re actually wasting so much time on stuff that’s never deployed.

@jsbarretto I think software was constantly on the verge of collapse until open source became a thing in the 80’s / 90’s. I don’t think any company exists today that doesn’t benefit heavily from open source at this point. Open source is literally essential.

@jsbarretto since getting laid off and building zipcaptions.app it feels like the value of what I build is inversely proportional to the amount of money I get paid to do it. Also, here's my garden.

@jsbarretto I feel this.

@jsbarretto Oh, see, but you *are* "productive" because the work you do for that job makes the company owner(s) richer. No, it doesn't matter whether the societal impact of what you do stays entirely within the company or affects only other companies that buy into your employer's product.

🙄

@jsbarretto I feel like the early days of the pandemic really illustrated this. People were given money and told to stay home, and they created community support groups, little free pantries, art and music and videos and all sorts of things.

Of course not everyone. But so so many people were productive and giving back to their communities and it was kinda amazing to see!

@jsbarretto it’s why I pay myself to develop open source software 😅

@jsbarretto yeah. At my first job, we were basically making an AWS-like platform for local government-affiliated telecom giant. And I could not shake off the feeling that 90% of code written for a paycheck is just reinventing a legally distinct wheel, because the real wheel is closed-source.
The thought, for me, really brings on the feeling of being helplessly stuck in capitalist quicksand.

@jsbarretto This in just one more reason why UBI makes sense.

@jsbarretto completely agree, particularly at… current employer…

@jsbarretto dude yes. It always feels different when you are passionate about what you are doing rather than needing to do it to survive.

@jsbarretto one time I posted on Reddit that I got my first coding gig recently without college and talked a little about my journey. I told them that I worked at a start up for free for a year, then for $100 a week. People threw a fit. But it is very normal. And also very unfortunate.

@jsbarretto @Sweatshirt I'm lucky that I love my work. Haven't always been able to say that but much of what I do daily is the type of thing I would seek to do even if my needs were already met. And while it may not be a doctor's level of societal contribution, I know my work brings people joy so that's good enough for me :)

@jsbarretto absolutely. Even if just two people benefit from some source I released, that beats some rich white guy running an empire.

@jsbarretto this reminds me of a video I literally just watched today. While Brian Eno is talking about artists, it could just has easily been open source developers. https://youtu.be/qkD7JBspgas

@jsbarretto if you haven’t already, you should read Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber. It’s a fun read and helps bring clarity to how and why socially useful work is devalued.

@jsbarretto desperate to find a way out of my corporate job to make free library software, I feel ya.

@jsbarretto My guess is that this is mostly a public goods funding problem.