5 ms·

Entitlement to recognition? Everybody should be entitled to that. IDK if you are in the FOSS community but I talk to people who just want to write software that

by derrida 13y ago

Entitlement to recognition? Everybody should be entitled to that. IDK if you are in the FOSS community but I talk to people who just want to write software that is used for nothing other than some minor recognition from some geeks that matter to them, who want to suicide. Everybody is entitled to be recognized and respected. Your comment made me angry that you missed so clearly the likelihood of this person being in a fragile situation. Hey, I have Aspergers too you know, there is no excuse to tell other people how they think they feel. It makes them feel ignored and under recognized. Basic human dignity: you recognize the efforts of others. I'd say recognition for minor things is the lifeblood of society without money. Everybody is entitled to recognition.

spqr 13y ago
Oh so now we are entitled to recognition? Everyone gets a trophy, right? Hey it works for 8 year olds, why not adults?
epo 13y ago
Don't you start whining too. It is entitlement, not a desire for recognition. No one is disrespecting this guy (so far as we know) they are just ignoring him, just like everyone else in the world spends most of their lives after early childhood, being ignored. If no one uses this guy's software it may be that it is just of no use to them. And if you write FOSS just to hear the roar of the appreciative crowd then that is your problem all long. Remember the adage to "scratch an itch" whether OR NOT anyone else finds it useful.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
notacoward 13y ago
Sometimes it's not even about minor recognition. Sometimes it's about believing that there's really something fundamentally better about the way your app/library solves the problem at hand. It's frustrating to see people continue doing things the "broken" way when a better way has actually been demonstrated and made easily available. Is everyone who believes that correct? Certainly not, but that's not the point. The point is that sometimes it's about idealism, not ego. People like Jacques might deny others the privilege of reinventing the wheel (even as they gained their own notoriety by exercising that privilege themselves) but that's really how every superior alternative has to start. Linux, HTML/HTTP, every database (SQL or otherwise) of the last twenty years, Hadoop - all are or contain reinvented wheels, and IMO at least one of those suffers by comparison to "reinvented" alternatives. The literal wheel itself has been reinvented a couple of times, from rolling logs to axles and bearings and differentials and aerodynamic shapes designed in wind tunnels. One man's reinvention is another's creative destruction, and it often has nothing to do with ego. It's not entitlement to feel pain from banging your mind against some mad buggers' walls.
- goldfeld 13y ago
  I sympathize with the OP and don't mean to be derisive, but really there is so much open source software to be done, so many niches and gaps and itches to scratch (I currently am writing three projects for which I see little to no "competitors"). And yet his major projects are a plugin system and a static blog generator. I might be coming from node.js here, don't know the status quo in Python, but even as JS is a much younger cohesive community, there are a TON of people doing their own versions of what the poster is doing, in fact they might be among the most reinvented applications out there. And there are clearly many winners already. I love doing developer tools too, many of my itches revolve around them, being a developer, yet I see many problems that aren't seeing as much competition. A good execution on an area open source lacks would not go unappreciated.
  - malodyets 13y ago
    What do you see as the holes? Care to link out to your three projects?
- jacquesm 13y ago
  I'm fine with people re-inventing the wheel. I just don't get why the world should be expected to use your wheel. I've re-invented the wheel more often than not (all but once or so), yet if the world doesn't use whatever I make that doesn't upset me because I recognize that was my own choice rather than that the world now owes me.
  - notacoward 13y ago
    Why should the world be expected to use your wheel? Because it's better. That belief might be incorrect the vast majority of the time and/or in this specific case, but I for one am reluctant to quash that kind of enthusiasm. It's the fuel of progress, even if some (most?) of it is wasted. The disappointment and frustration of seeing "inferior" alternatives prevail are inseparable from the drive to create a better one. It's not about "owing" anything. For many people, it's about wanting to make the (technical) world a better place, being thwarted, and seeing the community as a whole diminished as a result. Maybe some people don't feel that kind of passion themselves. Maybe they think emotion and idealism have no place in computing, though if that were the case I doubt we'd see so many flame wars. Maybe they've never had an idea worth getting that attached to, though I doubt that's a common factor in a forum for entrepreneurs. Maybe some people are in it for the ego boost themselves, and can't imagine others being in it for another reason. Whatever the explanation, the fact remains that some people do get invested in an idea for reasons besides ego, and it's good for them to do so.

by derrida 13y ago

spqr 13y ago

Oh so now we are entitled to recognition? Everyone gets a trophy, right? Hey it works for 8 year olds, why not adults?

epo 13y ago

Don't you start whining too. It is entitlement, not a desire for recognition. No one is disrespecting this guy (so far as we know) they are just ignoring him, just like everyone else in the world spends most of their lives after early childhood, being ignored. If no one uses this guy's software it may be that it is just of no use to them. And if you write FOSS just to hear the roar of the appreciative crowd then that is your problem all long. Remember the adage to "scratch an itch" whether OR NOT anyone else finds it useful.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

notacoward 13y ago

Sometimes it's not even about minor recognition. Sometimes it's about believing that there's really something fundamentally better about the way your app/library solves the problem at hand. It's frustrating to see people continue doing things the "broken" way when a better way has actually been demonstrated and made easily available. Is everyone who believes that correct? Certainly not, but that's not the point. The point is that sometimes it's about idealism, not ego. People like Jacques might deny others the privilege of reinventing the wheel (even as they gained their own notoriety by exercising that privilege themselves) but that's really how every superior alternative has to start. Linux, HTML/HTTP, every database (SQL or otherwise) of the last twenty years, Hadoop - all are or contain reinvented wheels, and IMO at least one of those suffers by comparison to "reinvented" alternatives. The literal wheel itself has been reinvented a couple of times, from rolling logs to axles and bearings and differentials and aerodynamic shapes designed in wind tunnels. One man's reinvention is another's creative destruction, and it often has nothing to do with ego. It's not entitlement to feel pain from banging your mind against some mad buggers' walls.

goldfeld 13y ago
I sympathize with the OP and don't mean to be derisive, but really there is so much open source software to be done, so many niches and gaps and itches to scratch (I currently am writing three projects for which I see little to no "competitors"). And yet his major projects are a plugin system and a static blog generator. I might be coming from node.js here, don't know the status quo in Python, but even as JS is a much younger cohesive community, there are a TON of people doing their own versions of what the poster is doing, in fact they might be among the most reinvented applications out there. And there are clearly many winners already. I love doing developer tools too, many of my itches revolve around them, being a developer, yet I see many problems that aren't seeing as much competition. A good execution on an area open source lacks would not go unappreciated.
- malodyets 13y ago
  What do you see as the holes? Care to link out to your three projects?
jacquesm 13y ago
I'm fine with people re-inventing the wheel. I just don't get why the world should be expected to use your wheel. I've re-invented the wheel more often than not (all but once or so), yet if the world doesn't use whatever I make that doesn't upset me because I recognize that was my own choice rather than that the world now owes me.
- notacoward 13y ago
  Why should the world be expected to use your wheel? Because it's better. That belief might be incorrect the vast majority of the time and/or in this specific case, but I for one am reluctant to quash that kind of enthusiasm. It's the fuel of progress, even if some (most?) of it is wasted. The disappointment and frustration of seeing "inferior" alternatives prevail are inseparable from the drive to create a better one. It's not about "owing" anything. For many people, it's about wanting to make the (technical) world a better place, being thwarted, and seeing the community as a whole diminished as a result. Maybe some people don't feel that kind of passion themselves. Maybe they think emotion and idealism have no place in computing, though if that were the case I doubt we'd see so many flame wars. Maybe they've never had an idea worth getting that attached to, though I doubt that's a common factor in a forum for entrepreneurs. Maybe some people are in it for the ego boost themselves, and can't imagine others being in it for another reason. Whatever the explanation, the fact remains that some people do get invested in an idea for reasons besides ego, and it's good for them to do so.