Daniel, the point of your article is generally sound, but you omitted an
important point, motivation.
When you see a clone of hn-books or bingo card creator or some other
idea, you're assuming the motivation for it is profit, and you're
assuming the goal is to create a business.
Your assumptions may often be correct, in fact, your assumptions may be
correct in the majority of cases, but unfortunately, they are not always
correct. You are too focused on "work," "effort," "skill," "business,"
and "profit" to see the less obvious and more idealistic side of things.
The less obvious side is, fun.
The greatest hackers I've known just love coding. They do it for fun.
Many are obsessive enough to use a pedal bike to power their CVS/GIT
server if that was the only way to keep it running. The challenge,
problem, or idea is mostly irrelevant. Though nearly everyone enjoys
having their accomplishments recognized by others, it's not a
competition for attention, recognition, profits, or anything else.
Great hackers often have the luxury of waking up, getting a cup of
coffee, and scratching whatever itch suits their current fancy. All
programmers suffer from the planning fallacy, or more accurately, an
over-abundance of optimism. When they see a challenge, their only
reaction is, "I can do that!" regardless if there is any realistic truth
in their statement. --HN is filled with interesting challenges.
The thing is, the fun is in trying. Whether or not they "succeed" or
"fail" matters very little since all the fun is had in just trying. It's
also fun to watch other people try, and learn from the lessons they have
learned through trying. Programming is not a spectator sport, but
learning from the efforts of others is as close as we'll get without
actually writing some code of our own, and possibly contributing it back
to those we've been watching.
I suspect at least some portion of the clones are merely people who
said, "I can do that!" and for fun, gave it a try. The idea of sincerely
competing in a business sense never crossed their minds as they fired up
their favorite text editor and started having some fun.
If the challenge that I found interesting and fun today was writing an
ebook on being a ScrumMaster, I'd enjoy my attempt at writing one. We
both know my results would undoubtedly suck compared to yours, but it
would still be fun for me, even though the result would still be yet
another bit of competition for you.
The above was a poor example, but I wanted to point out how the "fun for
me" can also be "harmful for you," even when no harm is intended. It's
quite similar to people who drive too fast, or in the opinion of law
enforcement, drive faster than allowed or faster than is safe. Some of
the "fun" people have is inconsiderate and harmful.
When you see a clone of hn-books or bingo card creator or some other idea, you're assuming the motivation for it is profit, and you're assuming the goal is to create a business.
Your assumptions may often be correct, in fact, your assumptions may be correct in the majority of cases, but unfortunately, they are not always correct. You are too focused on "work," "effort," "skill," "business," and "profit" to see the less obvious and more idealistic side of things.
The less obvious side is, fun.
The greatest hackers I've known just love coding. They do it for fun. Many are obsessive enough to use a pedal bike to power their CVS/GIT server if that was the only way to keep it running. The challenge, problem, or idea is mostly irrelevant. Though nearly everyone enjoys having their accomplishments recognized by others, it's not a competition for attention, recognition, profits, or anything else.
Great hackers often have the luxury of waking up, getting a cup of coffee, and scratching whatever itch suits their current fancy. All programmers suffer from the planning fallacy, or more accurately, an over-abundance of optimism. When they see a challenge, their only reaction is, "I can do that!" regardless if there is any realistic truth in their statement. --HN is filled with interesting challenges.
The thing is, the fun is in trying. Whether or not they "succeed" or "fail" matters very little since all the fun is had in just trying. It's also fun to watch other people try, and learn from the lessons they have learned through trying. Programming is not a spectator sport, but learning from the efforts of others is as close as we'll get without actually writing some code of our own, and possibly contributing it back to those we've been watching.
I suspect at least some portion of the clones are merely people who said, "I can do that!" and for fun, gave it a try. The idea of sincerely competing in a business sense never crossed their minds as they fired up their favorite text editor and started having some fun.
If the challenge that I found interesting and fun today was writing an ebook on being a ScrumMaster, I'd enjoy my attempt at writing one. We both know my results would undoubtedly suck compared to yours, but it would still be fun for me, even though the result would still be yet another bit of competition for you.
The above was a poor example, but I wanted to point out how the "fun for me" can also be "harmful for you," even when no harm is intended. It's quite similar to people who drive too fast, or in the opinion of law enforcement, drive faster than allowed or faster than is safe. Some of the "fun" people have is inconsiderate and harmful.