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> A question I have is, why is online discussion about this topic so one-sided while the discussions I've had in real life are so oppositely one-sided. Of cours

by Zababa 5y ago

> A question I have is, why is online discussion about this topic so one-sided while the discussions I've had in real life are so oppositely one-sided. Of course, neither people who are loud on the internet nor people I personally know are representative samples of programmers, but I still find it interesting. Programming languages are a kind of pyramid scheme. If you get more people into the community, you have more chances of using it at your day job, more libraries will be developed, more people will work on the language itself, more people will promote it and do cool stuff with it. Popularity brings even more popularity. And popularity is usually the most important feature of a programming language. Edit: as mentionned by ashtonkem, the proper term would be "network effect" and not "pyramid scheme".

ashtonkem 5y ago
The proper term for this is “network effect”. Pyramid schemes only make sense if you’re remunerated in some way based on the number of people you directly and indirectly bring to the language.
- Zababa 5y ago
  > Pyramid schemes only make sense if you’re remunerated in some way based on the number of people you directly and indirectly bring to the language. But you are remunarated in a way. If your pet language become really popular, you don't have to choose between using it for less pay or not using it for more pay. That's either more pay or more happiness compared to the previous choice. There will also be more libraries, better tooling, better everything in general that will make you gain a lot of time. Also, people that follow you will also be "trapped" in the language as they will have invested in it. If they want to make their investment better, one of the thing you can do it again, bring other people to the language. Another thing is that if you're someone very important in a small language, and that language gets big, you become someone very important, period. Again, an incentive to bring people into it.
  - ashtonkem 5y ago
    You benefit from the popularity of the language, not specifically from the people you bring in. In a real pyramid scheme all the people you bring in (and the people they bring in) pay you directly. Nobody else in the scheme helps you, and they may in fact be competing with you for new recruits. You’re also obligated to pass some (or most) of the benefits you receive on to the person who recruited you. With the above hypothetical, you benefit from more programmers in your language regardless of how they got there, even if someone else “recruits” them, or they were there before you got there.
    - Zababa 5y ago
      I took a deeper look at the definition of network effect and you're right.

by Zababa 5y ago

ashtonkem 5y ago

The proper term for this is “network effect”. Pyramid schemes only make sense if you’re remunerated in some way based on the number of people you directly and indirectly bring to the language.

Zababa 5y ago
> Pyramid schemes only make sense if you’re remunerated in some way based on the number of people you directly and indirectly bring to the language. But you are remunarated in a way. If your pet language become really popular, you don't have to choose between using it for less pay or not using it for more pay. That's either more pay or more happiness compared to the previous choice. There will also be more libraries, better tooling, better everything in general that will make you gain a lot of time. Also, people that follow you will also be "trapped" in the language as they will have invested in it. If they want to make their investment better, one of the thing you can do it again, bring other people to the language. Another thing is that if you're someone very important in a small language, and that language gets big, you become someone very important, period. Again, an incentive to bring people into it.
- ashtonkem 5y ago
  You benefit from the popularity of the language, not specifically from the people you bring in. In a real pyramid scheme all the people you bring in (and the people they bring in) pay you directly. Nobody else in the scheme helps you, and they may in fact be competing with you for new recruits. You’re also obligated to pass some (or most) of the benefits you receive on to the person who recruited you. With the above hypothetical, you benefit from more programmers in your language regardless of how they got there, even if someone else “recruits” them, or they were there before you got there.
  - Zababa 5y ago
    I took a deeper look at the definition of network effect and you're right.