7 ms·

There's some cognitive dissonance to me about using Ayn Rand's words about open-source efforts. What seems to be missing from both forms of discourse is this na

There's some cognitive dissonance to me about using Ayn Rand's words about open-source efforts. What seems to be missing from both forms of discourse is this nagging term "public good". That is, if you're doing what you're doing to make the world a better place, you wouldn't be so incentivized to keep score about who's benefiting more. I don't disagree with the author's ideas about how to create an incentive structure that finds alternate means of benefiting those who have gone out of their way to contribute. I just think framing it the way he did comes across as a little pecuniary.

Chyzwar 2y ago
Only rich people can think in terms of public good. Rest of us pheasants needs to put food on the table. There is difference between childless google employee maintaining open source library as side hustle and someone running company building Drupal sites for a living in India.
- sdenton4 2y ago
  And worse, we pheasants are in constant danger of being eaten by starving peasants.
  - incanus77 2y ago
    It’s important, as pheasants, that we maintain presence of mind around peasants, lest we become holiday meal presents.
    - yoav 2y ago
      To my ear, this all sounds very pheasant.
- languagehacker 2y ago
  > childless Google employee yikes
  - keybored 2y ago
    They might prefer *childfree.
- kragen 2y ago
  as a poor person, i greatly appreciate public goods such as the public park down the street, the sidewalks that take me there, the public order that kept me from getting stabbed the last time i was successfully robbed, wikipedia, linux, firefox, and library genesis i contribute to them by, among other things, not littering in the park, editing wikipedia, and publishing my software as free software
  - 082349872349872 2y ago
    Where does the land of "la unica solución" seem to be heading? Are you more likely to wind up with somewhat more protection from robbery, getting robbed at chainsaw-point (beats getting dropped out of a helicopter), or somewhere in between? Lagniappe: https://d22fxaf9t8d39k.cloudfront.net/bfaefbf26f795ff226ff08c5ee0db0a7be53f93122fdfed73970e8c814baa2b0172628.png https://d22fxaf9t8d39k.cloudfront.net/bfaefbf26f795ff226ff08... [we had someone in recently who seemed very well educated for taking a job as a cuidador de caballos, but it turned out to be dual purpose: during the 6-month visa we could arrange, he managed (in surprisingly few physical trips) to do all the italian bureaucracy wrangling he'd needed to get their passport]
    - kragen 2y ago
      Possibly less protection against random bandits, less protection against official corruption, and decaying infrastructure as well. We'll see; I'm surprised things haven't gotten any worse than they have (I was expecting general strikes to unseat our ideologue months ago) but it remains to be seen how things work out. The official plan is a transition to capitalism, but that depends on private investment. And what fool would invest their own money in Argentina, knowing they'll lose their investment after the next election?
      - 082349872349872 2y ago
        Maybe Milei could issue a BoludoCoin? EDIT: no, that's already a thing https://boludocoin.com https://boludocoin.com :|
    - 2y ago
Terretta 2y ago
> What seems to be missing from both forms of discourse is this nagging term "public good". The term is in the article: Our approach stems from a key insight, also explained in my Makers and Takers blog post: customers are a "common good" for an open source project, not a "public good".

Chyzwar 2y ago

Only rich people can think in terms of public good. Rest of us pheasants needs to put food on the table. There is difference between childless google employee maintaining open source library as side hustle and someone running company building Drupal sites for a living in India.

sdenton4 2y ago
And worse, we pheasants are in constant danger of being eaten by starving peasants.
- incanus77 2y ago
  It’s important, as pheasants, that we maintain presence of mind around peasants, lest we become holiday meal presents.
  - yoav 2y ago
    To my ear, this all sounds very pheasant.
languagehacker 2y ago
> childless Google employee yikes
- keybored 2y ago
  They might prefer *childfree.
kragen 2y ago
as a poor person, i greatly appreciate public goods such as the public park down the street, the sidewalks that take me there, the public order that kept me from getting stabbed the last time i was successfully robbed, wikipedia, linux, firefox, and library genesis i contribute to them by, among other things, not littering in the park, editing wikipedia, and publishing my software as free software
- 082349872349872 2y ago
  Where does the land of "la unica solución" seem to be heading? Are you more likely to wind up with somewhat more protection from robbery, getting robbed at chainsaw-point (beats getting dropped out of a helicopter), or somewhere in between? Lagniappe: https://d22fxaf9t8d39k.cloudfront.net/bfaefbf26f795ff226ff08c5ee0db0a7be53f93122fdfed73970e8c814baa2b0172628.png https://d22fxaf9t8d39k.cloudfront.net/bfaefbf26f795ff226ff08... [we had someone in recently who seemed very well educated for taking a job as a cuidador de caballos, but it turned out to be dual purpose: during the 6-month visa we could arrange, he managed (in surprisingly few physical trips) to do all the italian bureaucracy wrangling he'd needed to get their passport]
  - kragen 2y ago
    Possibly less protection against random bandits, less protection against official corruption, and decaying infrastructure as well. We'll see; I'm surprised things haven't gotten any worse than they have (I was expecting general strikes to unseat our ideologue months ago) but it remains to be seen how things work out. The official plan is a transition to capitalism, but that depends on private investment. And what fool would invest their own money in Argentina, knowing they'll lose their investment after the next election?
    - 082349872349872 2y ago
      Maybe Milei could issue a BoludoCoin? EDIT: no, that's already a thing https://boludocoin.com https://boludocoin.com :|
  - 2y ago

Terretta 2y ago

> What seems to be missing from both forms of discourse is this nagging term "public good". The term is in the article: Our approach stems from a key insight, also explained in my Makers and Takers blog post: customers are a "common good" for an open source project, not a "public good".