3 ms·

It bugs you because you don't get get it, freely stereotype and readily tell people how to spend their free time. I work for a bigco that doesn't contribute to

by anxrn 15y ago

It bugs you because you don't get get it, freely stereotype and readily tell people how to spend their free time. I work for a bigco that doesn't contribute to open source. I used to work for a bigco that was one of the biggest contributors to open source. I spend spare time working on an reasonably sized open source project, of which I was one of the founders, hosted on, yes, github. I have interesting (to me, atleast) side projects, mostly hardhacks, which I don't necessarily build to share. I do it for fun. Obviously, I read HN. I never require open source experience when I hire, because my experience in both the 'closed' and 'open' worlds tells me that great scientists and engineers exist in both worlds and using a VCS account as a filter is crude. This is just another facet.

swanson 15y ago
I agree with you that it is another facet. The point I was trying to make is that there is a pretty low barrier to entry to get yourself into that facet. An attitude I see online a lot is that "If I don't do it, it's not valuable" - though this goes hand-in-hand with "I do it, if you don't you are wrong". I am biased because I do have a github account and work on side projects for fun, but I think it is worthwhile to point out that if time is what you think your limiting factor is (which was the point that cletus made that I was directly addressing), then maybe you aren't really looking hard enough into how you are using your time.
- alain94040 15y ago
  You have made similar statements about 4 times in this thread ("you aren't really looking hard enough into how you are using your time.", "trade an hour of TV watching for an hour of writing your own blog engine or a Todo list app") already and you basically alienated about 90% of good developers, and you still don't seem to get why your statement is insulting. Others told you, so try to understand their viewpoint: you are projecting your own prejudices about time and open source. Maybe, if you look at the cold, hard numbers, you may agree that 90% of smart programmers don't have a github account. True or false? If true, then your claims need to be revisited.

by anxrn 15y ago

swanson 15y ago

I agree with you that it is another facet. The point I was trying to make is that there is a pretty low barrier to entry to get yourself into that facet. An attitude I see online a lot is that "If I don't do it, it's not valuable" - though this goes hand-in-hand with "I do it, if you don't you are wrong". I am biased because I do have a github account and work on side projects for fun, but I think it is worthwhile to point out that if time is what you think your limiting factor is (which was the point that cletus made that I was directly addressing), then maybe you aren't really looking hard enough into how you are using your time.

alain94040 15y ago
You have made similar statements about 4 times in this thread ("you aren't really looking hard enough into how you are using your time.", "trade an hour of TV watching for an hour of writing your own blog engine or a Todo list app") already and you basically alienated about 90% of good developers, and you still don't seem to get why your statement is insulting. Others told you, so try to understand their viewpoint: you are projecting your own prejudices about time and open source. Maybe, if you look at the cold, hard numbers, you may agree that 90% of smart programmers don't have a github account. True or false? If true, then your claims need to be revisited.