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> I usually don't consider something to be a good deed if more money is spent promoting the deed than cost of the deed. That's kind of my threshold. Why you t
by matkoniecz 4y ago
> I usually don't consider something to be a good deed if more money is spent promoting the deed than cost of the deed. That's kind of my threshold.
Why you think that it applies here?
- blagie 4y agoI might be wrong, and from the number of comments, perhaps I am wrong. However, my experience is that cost structures at FAANG, Microsoft, etc. are astronomical. In abstract, if the CEO decides to donate $500k and make a blog post, things can sometimes be relatively fast and easy. In practice, usually one person spends a few weeks or months working to make a case for it, which bounces around the reporting channels, approvals, etc. Communication about it is approved through legal and marketing. Legal brings up issues about what to do if a maintainer is in Cuba and subject to Cuban embargoes, China and subject to Chinese taxes, or the Talysh-Mughan Autonomous Republic. Median compensation is around $350k (and total cost close to double that). Basically anything external-facing like this usually ends up costing a lot by small business standards. $500k is 0.0003% of Microsoft's annual revenues, or on the order of magnitude of the annual cost of 1 employee (or 0.0006% of the organization). At a trillion-dollar scale, it kinda makes sense to have process. A mistake can wipe out single-digit percent of stock value overnight. My experience, also, is that the process doesn't improve quality. It just prevents stupid shit from going out.
- matkoniecz 4y agoNote that such organizational costs would apply also to just funding OS without any PR. I would not count it as "promoting the deed". How much more they needed to spend to make also blog post PR and other PR stuff, in addition to donations?