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I don't agree with anything you just wrote.. The hobbyists much more 'define' the software industry than 9-5 cubicle'ites as yourself..

Not a single one of the friends I know that are good programmers started doing anything even remotely close to profitable or "job" related stuff..

One grand example of this is the demoscene (www.scene.org), which is as close to a "digital woodstock" mentality you can get in our time, and I know for a fact that a vast majority of the gameindustry foundation in sweden (and I'm sure everywhere else) is built on those very people, and the demoscene routinely push boundaries the game industry have yet to reach, and it's all for the love of the art form, there is no profit goal, and never will be.

So yeah, in my mind, the "software industry" is something that's a nice way to earn a living as a software engineer, in a serendipity type of way, but it does -not- define them as programmers.

At least that's how I got into "official" programming, and I'm not worried about loosing a job etc, I'd be just as happy doing construction or babysitting or deodorant smell-tester etc, but I will NEVER stop doing what I love, something you probably don't understand. The sooner the 'industry' understands that (like the game industry already has), the better for everyone!


(note that this doesn't have anything at all to do with opensource)

Brandon Van Every wrote:
On Feb 9, 2008 6:06 AM, Stefan Sandberg <keffo.sandberg@gmail.com> wrote:
Woah, that's the most depressing statement I've heard in a long time, I
almost feel sorry for you!

I couldn't care less about what people trade currency for in their day
to day job, what impresses the shit out of me is all the stuff people
come up with for no apparent reason
other than their own personal gratification, or simply for the art in it..

You basically reduced all the wonderful things people do for "fun" into
a pile of crap..

They don't last. They don't change the software industry.  The
software industry is basically junk.  It takes important strategic
principles to do anything about it.  Lua has a good idea in this
regard, that a small off-the-shelf language can be easily embedded
rather than your homebrew.  But hobbyists who merely play with Lua are
not producing a similarly good idea.  Where "good" == "strategically
important" == "will change the software industry" == "will make
programmers' lives less miserable in a paying industrial context."

To put it another way, hobbyists deal with the depressing truth of the
software industry by completely ignoring it.  They do not face it or
contribute to overcoming it.

You probably have the makings of an excellent boss, but please refrain
from commenting on what us "hobbyists" think is important.

No problem, as I do not think what hobbyists think is important.
Hobbyists, in my experience, do not have the stamina to make a
difference.  I wish they'd find it somewhere.  Turn them into
ideological warriors who are going to make software better.


Cheers,
Brandon Van Every