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This is always what happens, and it's usually a good thing. The people ahead of the curve have to be more motivated, but if we get more people sharing, more ey

This is always what happens, and it's usually a good thing. The people ahead of the curve have to be more motivated, but if we get more people sharing, more eyes to find and fix bugs, more people from other walks of life that understand a bit more of the hacker mentality, more acceptance of sharing code as a normal part of life, then the world is a better place. Yes, it's a shame that not everyone who plays the piano has the dedication and vision of Rachmaninov, or that everyone who paints is Picasso, but I think the world is a better place for amateurs and dilettantes. Sure, we'd perhaps have better art if it were restricted to those who must, but we have a better society because those who are moderately interested can.

arve456 13y ago
The nice thing about programming: You don't have to perform in the 99.9 percentile (like Picasso) to make something people want.
- RodericDay 13y ago
  are you implying the only worthwhile fine art is the 0.1th percentile?
  - WalterSear 13y ago
    There's a lot of art out there.
    - mkramlich 13y ago
      And almost all of it can be enjoyed for free, without its creators ever seeing a penny. Artists practically invented the 'race to the bottom' effect. The Internet and digital media came late to the party, magnified the effect, then widened the number of domains impacted
      - WalterSear 13y ago
        They also invented the 'sea of mediocrity' effect.
angersock 13y ago
To play the other side of this... It's not a good thing. Submitting proper bug reports is hard, and contributing to an existing project without making more work for others can be hard as well. The best software does the most with the least amount of code while still being easy to read--and when a library or app gets there, it's time to stop. The problem with a hypothetical swarm of people trying to pad their Githubs (the same way premeds pad their CVs, for example) is that they'll flood otherwise stable projects with garbage, or start rewrites for no other reason than they think they can do it better. A lot of good projects are going to get fucked up this way.

arve456 13y ago

The nice thing about programming: You don't have to perform in the 99.9 percentile (like Picasso) to make something people want.

RodericDay 13y ago
are you implying the only worthwhile fine art is the 0.1th percentile?
- WalterSear 13y ago
  There's a lot of art out there.
  - mkramlich 13y ago
    And almost all of it can be enjoyed for free, without its creators ever seeing a penny. Artists practically invented the 'race to the bottom' effect. The Internet and digital media came late to the party, magnified the effect, then widened the number of domains impacted
    - WalterSear 13y ago
      They also invented the 'sea of mediocrity' effect.

angersock 13y ago

To play the other side of this... It's not a good thing. Submitting proper bug reports is hard, and contributing to an existing project without making more work for others can be hard as well. The best software does the most with the least amount of code while still being easy to read--and when a library or app gets there, it's time to stop. The problem with a hypothetical swarm of people trying to pad their Githubs (the same way premeds pad their CVs, for example) is that they'll flood otherwise stable projects with garbage, or start rewrites for no other reason than they think they can do it better. A lot of good projects are going to get fucked up this way.