Gregory's ServerThe number of boosts this is getting implies that a lot of folk feel similar, and that's sad.
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6 comments
 @jsbarretto That's true, but I bet there are also a lot of people who don't feel similarly and thus are not reacting to this post. Obviously I can only guess at the real numbers, but I would imagine that among programmers (or writers, organizers, etc) who have worked on #opensource projects, only a small fraction of them have had a meaningful impact on the world through those contributions.  @diazona I guess that depends on your definition of 'meaningful'. An extreme definition might be "is on the critical path to a human being receiving sustenance or shelter" but I'm of the view that there are more indirect or immaterial ways for things to be meaningful. @jsbarretto @jsbarretto I’m certain I volunteered at least millions of dollars in unpaid economic impact during a maintainership period of around five years, much more with interest My indirect compensation I’ve received through employment and salary has been wonderful, but that doesn’t stop me from feeling jaded about returning to maintership of even a hobby-only project  @jsbarretto I am extremely glad I've had the opportunity to get paid to work on nearly-exclusively free/open software in the last bunch of years. |
@jsbarretto It's normal (but not okay). There's very little paid work that benefits humanity at large, and when there is, most often it also involves enclosing that benefit to limit who can have it (like with things like medical research).