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This is why I just advocate for UBI nowadays. It's impossible for certain people to get paid for work they do and value they create and the reasons are numerous

This is why I just advocate for UBI nowadays. It's impossible for certain people to get paid for work they do and value they create and the reasons are numerous and different for every single person. A lot of it is because human attention has been fully centralized and monopolized. Regulations are the nail in the coffin. This industry is cooked, to a crisp. Tech people who have been excluded from the tech markets should be paid some kind of compensation.

woodruffw 5d ago
I think Alex Gaynor is essentially right here[1]. [1]: https://alexgaynor.net/2025/apr/08/putting-a-price-tag-on-open-source/ https://alexgaynor.net/2025/apr/08/putting-a-price-tag-on-op...
- jongjong 5d ago
  The first time I understood there is a systemic problem was years ago when I started attending investor events and was pitching my open source software to tech companies and investors and they were all asking me "But what are you selling?" and I kept telling them "I'm not selling anything, I'm just looking for adopters of my open source product." and I was shaking hands with every person in the room. They couldn't understand. They must have thought I was crazy. But the thing is, I couldn't even sell it for free. Even though it was provably useful and many similar companies did use my product successfully, at scale. It really felt like "It's a big club and you ain't in it." It was like; they couldn't believe how much work I was putting in to give away a product for free. I think it might have made some people uncomfortable even. And although I am more honest and cynical now about my own intentions, I still think that 'making money' was not and is not the primary goal; it was always a secondary goal which I planned to attend to later if/when the conditions would be right. I was literally just trying to get big companies to adopt so that other smaller companies would look at them and tell themselves "Look, it's OK, big company X is using the product, so I can use it too!" My goal was not to sell anything, it was to dismantle systemic taboos which worked against me as a small contributor. 10 years later, the taboos are worse than before! I don't know how anyone can start an open source project without the badge of corporate sponsorship these days.

woodruffw 5d ago

I think Alex Gaynor is essentially right here[1]. [1]: https://alexgaynor.net/2025/apr/08/putting-a-price-tag-on-open-source/ https://alexgaynor.net/2025/apr/08/putting-a-price-tag-on-op...

jongjong 5d ago
The first time I understood there is a systemic problem was years ago when I started attending investor events and was pitching my open source software to tech companies and investors and they were all asking me "But what are you selling?" and I kept telling them "I'm not selling anything, I'm just looking for adopters of my open source product." and I was shaking hands with every person in the room. They couldn't understand. They must have thought I was crazy. But the thing is, I couldn't even sell it for free. Even though it was provably useful and many similar companies did use my product successfully, at scale. It really felt like "It's a big club and you ain't in it." It was like; they couldn't believe how much work I was putting in to give away a product for free. I think it might have made some people uncomfortable even. And although I am more honest and cynical now about my own intentions, I still think that 'making money' was not and is not the primary goal; it was always a secondary goal which I planned to attend to later if/when the conditions would be right. I was literally just trying to get big companies to adopt so that other smaller companies would look at them and tell themselves "Look, it's OK, big company X is using the product, so I can use it too!" My goal was not to sell anything, it was to dismantle systemic taboos which worked against me as a small contributor. 10 years later, the taboos are worse than before! I don't know how anyone can start an open source project without the badge of corporate sponsorship these days.