I disagree. A mercenary in your metaphor is essentially a contractor. Contractors have a more direct incentive to do well that a coder at a company. On a team (

I disagree. A mercenary in your metaphor is essentially a contractor. Contractors have a more direct incentive to do well that a coder at a company. On a team (i.e. a company) slackers can bet on someone else pulling in their slack while a contractor (at least any that are successful in the long run) need to develop trust in their clients. If they don't then they won't get hired again and they won't get good word of mouth which is the primary way to get more business. I guess this boils down to your premise that contractors are only working for money while someone working at a company is working for more than money. You have to make the case for this premise which seems wrong to me.