Folks that do this work for "free" do it because they enjoy it.
And a small observation: if you require money to do something, you usually have no chance of being as good as the folks that do it for the pleasure.
cjbgkagh•37m ago
I would suggest that’s an availability bias, those who do it for free are more likely to blog about it.
There is a common distinction between professional and amateur with the former getting paid for their work. In general there is an understanding that someone getting paid can focus and do it full time and are expected to be better than someone who does it as a hobby.
Perhaps coding is an unusual space where the best coders are often misfits who have a hard time holding down a job.
luqtas•11m ago
i think you need to understand more about modern software infrastructure [0]
> if you require money to do something, you usually have no chance of being as good as the folks that do it for the pleasure
Not only do I think professional have a chance to be as good as amateurs, but the elite professionals are on average better than the elite amateurs.
I do think that we would be better off if more elite amateurs became elite professionals.
kubb•36m ago
Sure but then they have to waste time working for money, rather than doing God’s work.
jeffbee•19m ago
Why not though? The entirety of the LLVM project is available to them, and you, for free, as is the RISC-V ISA itself. A lot of people are getting a lot of value from free and open software, and they may feel their contributions are in a like spirit.
szmarczak•1h ago
SVGs on Firefox are broken (like 0.1% of the size it needs to be).
brcmthrowaway•1h ago
Jyaif•50m ago
And a small observation: if you require money to do something, you usually have no chance of being as good as the folks that do it for the pleasure.
cjbgkagh•37m ago
There is a common distinction between professional and amateur with the former getting paid for their work. In general there is an understanding that someone getting paid can focus and do it full time and are expected to be better than someone who does it as a hobby.
Perhaps coding is an unusual space where the best coders are often misfits who have a hard time holding down a job.
luqtas•11m ago
[0] https://www.fordfoundation.org/learning/library/research-rep...
cjbgkagh•5m ago
> if you require money to do something, you usually have no chance of being as good as the folks that do it for the pleasure
Not only do I think professional have a chance to be as good as amateurs, but the elite professionals are on average better than the elite amateurs.
I do think that we would be better off if more elite amateurs became elite professionals.
kubb•36m ago
jeffbee•19m ago