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This sentiment is a bit like saying "sailors don't sail because they have somewhere to go. Sailors sail because they want to sail." It may be true if you're on

This sentiment is a bit like saying "sailors don't sail because they have somewhere to go. Sailors sail because they want to sail." It may be true if you're on a lake or in a bay, know the area well, and your intention is to just go and flex your sailing muscles. To practice, enjoy, check out something you're aware of but haven't actually navigated, or something else that's similarly within easy reach. It loses its applicability when you consider that, no, some sailors actually do have destinations. And some trips are long or difficult enough that they do in fact require planning, specific goals, timelines, and all manner of other preparation. I'm sure it's not a perfect metaphor, but the point is that the artificial limitation of "hackers hack to hack" is short-sighted and fundamentally flawed. Some do, some don't, and I would say most are somewhere in between. But please don't make the mistake -- on behalf of others -- of defining the entire community in terms of your preconceptions about what hackers do or don't value or attempt in an absolute sense.

gbog 13y ago
Yes, comparison is flawed. Imagine Torvalds starting to work on git. Is he sailing to go somewhere? Certainly. Has he a full business plan with all the bs about customers? Certainly not. He sails because he is a sailor, and sailor are explorers too. (Not in real life, but in this comparison)
- pencilcheck 13y ago
  However Linus built git for himself, not for others, therefore he doesn’t need to go through this because he will be the first customer once this product is finished and released. This article is aiming for entrepreneurs who are building a product for others because no where in the article did he infer any possibility that the product/service is something they want regardless of others.
  - greenyoda 13y ago
    "However Linus built git for himself, not for others..." No, Linus built git to address the needs of a large community of Linux kernel developers: Git development began after many developers of the Linux kernel chose to give up access to BitKeeper, a proprietary SCM system that had previously been used to maintain the project. The copyright holder of BitKeeper, Larry McVoy, had withdrawn free use of the product after he claimed that Andrew Tridgell had reverse-engineered the BitKeeper protocols. Torvalds wanted a distributed system that he could use like BitKeeper, but none of the available free systems met his needs, particularly in terms of performance. Torvalds took an example of an SCM system requiring thirty seconds to apply a patch and update all associated metadata, and noted that this would not scale to the needs of Linux kernel development, where syncing with fellow maintainers could require 250 such actions at a time. His goal was for patches to take three seconds.[1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Git_%28software%29#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Git_%28software%29#History
    - pencilcheck 13y ago
      Still, he is one of the target customers :) And you might noticed in the excerpt you have pasted, it says that `Torvalds wanted a distributed system that he could use like BitKeeper, but none of the available free systems met his needs`

gbog 13y ago

Yes, comparison is flawed. Imagine Torvalds starting to work on git. Is he sailing to go somewhere? Certainly. Has he a full business plan with all the bs about customers? Certainly not. He sails because he is a sailor, and sailor are explorers too. (Not in real life, but in this comparison)

pencilcheck 13y ago
However Linus built git for himself, not for others, therefore he doesn’t need to go through this because he will be the first customer once this product is finished and released. This article is aiming for entrepreneurs who are building a product for others because no where in the article did he infer any possibility that the product/service is something they want regardless of others.
- greenyoda 13y ago
  "However Linus built git for himself, not for others..." No, Linus built git to address the needs of a large community of Linux kernel developers: Git development began after many developers of the Linux kernel chose to give up access to BitKeeper, a proprietary SCM system that had previously been used to maintain the project. The copyright holder of BitKeeper, Larry McVoy, had withdrawn free use of the product after he claimed that Andrew Tridgell had reverse-engineered the BitKeeper protocols. Torvalds wanted a distributed system that he could use like BitKeeper, but none of the available free systems met his needs, particularly in terms of performance. Torvalds took an example of an SCM system requiring thirty seconds to apply a patch and update all associated metadata, and noted that this would not scale to the needs of Linux kernel development, where syncing with fellow maintainers could require 250 such actions at a time. His goal was for patches to take three seconds.[1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Git_%28software%29#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Git_%28software%29#History
  - pencilcheck 13y ago
    Still, he is one of the target customers :) And you might noticed in the excerpt you have pasted, it says that `Torvalds wanted a distributed system that he could use like BitKeeper, but none of the available free systems met his needs`