Any time you hear something like this run. This is just a manager's way of paying you less by making you work like an industrial revolution wage slave:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piece_work
Management's most cherished goal is setting the cost of labor at something approaching the value zero. Right now software developers make up a large labor cost that is "draining" the efficiency with which they can transfer dollars from the consumer to the shareholders. They will not rest until that inefficiency is taken care of.
One day the managers from all the major companies are just going to be sitting around saying, "Where did all our customers go. We can't seem to sell anything any more." Someone will have to remind them that they fired or marginalized all the other people in their companies and now there is no one left to buy their products.
In the end I suppose it is a personal choice for all of us to work for no money and produce our own food. My family has a long history of farming for their own food (we grew up poor and grew food to make ends meat). Let me tell you this. At the end of a long day of growing food for your family there is no energy for the higher pursuits of thinking (read programming or any other creative pursuit). Money is like the court system in civilized nations, horribly flawed and sometimes unfair. Some people work 80 hours a week to make what people who work 40 hours a week. Unfair, yes. Unfortunately, it is the best system we have at the present time. Even poor working people in civilized nations lead a life that is frankly much better than that realized in third world nations. To believe that everything (software in this case) can be provided at no cost at all is nieve. Everyone needs to eat. In other words some value has to be transferred from user to provider in order for the exchange to be worthwhile. For some people that value is simply that people appreciate their work. These people typically have jobs elsewhere. For people wanting to live in the real world and work on a open source project full time this value exchange is usually cash (however indirectly). This always ends up costing someone something. To believe that all software projects and material goods can be provided at zero cost to all consumers is frankly a load of malarkey. In the end someone pays. The provider pays by having another job they go to every day while working on their hobby at night or they get paid by a foundation set up by a loving community or business. This is the world we live in. Thinking that some day everyone will have everything provided to them for free because everyone will provide their valuable work for the greater good is to ignore human history and nature. In the end someone will pervert the system to receive more value. They will either pervert it or work harder to receive more of a share than everyone else. To believe otherwise is to believe in a fantasy.
You know what I find cynical... people who believe that if everything was free we'd all be happier. We might be happier if we could eat under that scenario. Unfortunately, at the end of the day, we all have to make money somehow in order to feed our families. Even open source programs with full time programmers need ways to pay the bills. In the end everything comes down to the almighty dollar. Unfortunate yes. Reality... yes.
I had cancelled my Dish Network system and switched to Time Warner in March of 2005. The lady at Dish Network told me my account was cancelled. Fast forward 9 months later and I started receiving small bills every month. I went on the website and used their email support to ask what the deal was. No reply. I got another bill. I emailed. No reply. Finally, I ended up owing them $90. I told them there was no way I was going to pay it. Turns out they had just put my account "on hold" and then reactivated it after a certain amount of time. I sent them 3 emails and got absolutely no response from their support. I should have picked up the phone but hey, when people put up email support I use it so I don't have to waste 30 minutes to an hour on the phone. They took me to collections and the dink to my credit was worth it to just not pay the money they tried to extort from me. I was a Dish Network customer for 2.5 years and paid them thousands of dollars. I should have known better than to think those thousands of dollars would be put into having support people that answered their email. I will never pay Dish another dime as long as I live. Long live Direct TV.
Slashdot Mirror
Any time you hear something like this run. This is just a manager's way of paying you less by making you work like an industrial revolution wage slave:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piece_work
Management's most cherished goal is setting the cost of labor at something approaching the value zero. Right now software developers make up a large labor cost that is "draining" the efficiency with which they can transfer dollars from the consumer to the shareholders. They will not rest until that inefficiency is taken care of.
One day the managers from all the major companies are just going to be sitting around saying, "Where did all our customers go. We can't seem to sell anything any more." Someone will have to remind them that they fired or marginalized all the other people in their companies and now there is no one left to buy their products.
In the end I suppose it is a personal choice for all of us to work for no money and produce our own food. My family has a long history of farming for their own food (we grew up poor and grew food to make ends meat). Let me tell you this. At the end of a long day of growing food for your family there is no energy for the higher pursuits of thinking (read programming or any other creative pursuit).
Money is like the court system in civilized nations, horribly flawed and sometimes unfair. Some people work 80 hours a week to make what people who work 40 hours a week. Unfair, yes. Unfortunately, it is the best system we have at the present time. Even poor working people in civilized nations lead a life that is frankly much better than that realized in third world nations.
To believe that everything (software in this case) can be provided at no cost at all is nieve. Everyone needs to eat. In other words some value has to be transferred from user to provider in order for the exchange to be worthwhile. For some people that value is simply that people appreciate their work. These people typically have jobs elsewhere. For people wanting to live in the real world and work on a open source project full time this value exchange is usually cash (however indirectly). This always ends up costing someone something.
To believe that all software projects and material goods can be provided at zero cost to all consumers is frankly a load of malarkey. In the end someone pays. The provider pays by having another job they go to every day while working on their hobby at night or they get paid by a foundation set up by a loving community or business. This is the world we live in.
Thinking that some day everyone will have everything provided to them for free because everyone will provide their valuable work for the greater good is to ignore human history and nature. In the end someone will pervert the system to receive more value. They will either pervert it or work harder to receive more of a share than everyone else. To believe otherwise is to believe in a fantasy.
You know what I find cynical ... people who believe that if everything was free we'd all be happier. We might be happier if we could eat under that scenario. Unfortunately, at the end of the day, we all have to make money somehow in order to feed our families. Even open source programs with full time programmers need ways to pay the bills. In the end everything comes down to the almighty dollar. Unfortunate yes. Reality ... yes.
I had cancelled my Dish Network system and switched to Time Warner in March of 2005. The lady at Dish Network told me my account was cancelled. Fast forward 9 months later and I started receiving small bills every month. I went on the website and used their email support to ask what the deal was. No reply. I got another bill. I emailed. No reply. Finally, I ended up owing them $90. I told them there was no way I was going to pay it. Turns out they had just put my account "on hold" and then reactivated it after a certain amount of time.
I sent them 3 emails and got absolutely no response from their support. I should have picked up the phone but hey, when people put up email support I use it so I don't have to waste 30 minutes to an hour on the phone. They took me to collections and the dink to my credit was worth it to just not pay the money they tried to extort from me.
I was a Dish Network customer for 2.5 years and paid them thousands of dollars. I should have known better than to think those thousands of dollars would be put into having support people that answered their email. I will never pay Dish another dime as long as I live. Long live Direct TV.
Didn't you know? These companies are all about the artist and what's good for them ... YEAH RIGHT! ;-)