 Point Lookout, Orinda |
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A First The first symas.console() posting hit Planet Identity. The Cost:Benefit Model of Fun Just listening to NeoFiles, When Hackers Rule the World. In an otherwise predictable but amusing conversation with Jennifer of EFF, the subject of the "cost benefit analysis of hacking" came up. First, following up on Jennifer's comment to the effect that maybe they're just whitewashing it in the way economists always do. Well, cost and benefit are the primary tools of economists. Having only a hammer and a screwdriver, they are unable to perform brain surgery or to produce quality movies. Economists worry about economies, not life. Second, R. U. Sirius and all went off into inventing things economists might try to assign values to as if that were a useful way to look at the question of why people do these things. That's falling into the trap of letting economics try to control the framing of the questions. Creativity, the production of things for our own purposes is not necessarily a question for economics. Life is about power, control, the satisfaction of a complex and poorly recognized collection of needs, and many other things including economics. People hack at code because they can. Just like they fight the intrusion of ugliness or perceived danger in their neighborhoods. Just like they mow the lawn or read a book or listen to a bit of music. Some people hack at code because they expect to be paid (we at Symas certainly do). Some people (often the same people) hack at code because they want to and with no expectation of compensation or even contribution to the common good. The latter has no obvious foundation in the economic realm. Hacking is an economic act if someone's paying for it. It may be come an economic act if, accidentally, something done for no gain becomes valuable commercially to others. More and ore of the code written is written without economic compensation of the hackers. The money cost of development declines. The value of software, any software, declines as the cost of replacing it declines. That's a byproduct, not an objective. Don't ask me why I write little things to please myself. Don't ask Howard why he hacks someone else's code to make it do something he wants. It's because we can. If, in the longer run, some of that goes into a project around which someone makes money, that doesn't change the fact that our hacking has no economic basis. The benefit is our joy of creation, something economics and politics only recognize if it's monetized for some corporation. A second thought I guess hacking is subversive. It undermines the ability of corporations like Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, etc. to continue to monetize software development as if people capable of producing good code were a scarce resource. It's always annoying to the overthrown that change happens. It will be intriguing to see if the Proprietary Software vendors mount an offense to defend against the subversion. Their only other choice is to join the party, adjust their expense:revenue and amortization models and fall into line. Today We went 5570 meters in 30 minutes at a lazy 123 HR Then a walk to the library before the rains to drop off a book And a run to Trader Joe's for coffee and chocolate. |
Watching Orinda. Watching the world. Last modified: Friday, February 17, 2006 at 4:53 PM.
Symas 
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. Still hanging at 218 
