For me, one of the most discouraging things I've found about code in general, is that there's too much of it. And it's all the same. Every project, every repo,

For me, one of the most discouraging things I've found about code in general, is that there's too much of it. And it's all the same. Every project, every repo, every developer, is just writing the same code, over and over again. Countless developers in the world are spending countless hours, are spending entire careers, writing code that's already existed. Real humans, are wasting their lives and their time. One of the best things about open source for me is that it reduces this a little. By having public and free code, you can begin to reuse others' work instead of re-creating it. It's a radical multiplier on progress. Imagine having to write log4j when all you really want to work on is creating a search engine. An individual can build a project at a level of complexity/finess that would otherwise require LIFETIMES. Every day, I get to regularly complete projects which I shouldn't be able to complete in my lifetime because of open source. And I get to contribute back to that fabric/infinite conversation. Proprietary code, although it might garner usage and benefit its users, will never be part of that fabric. This is why open source is worth it to me. Regardless of what proprietary companies do, I'm getting value from and providing value to open source.