It's always good to steal insights from wherever you legitimately
can. There's often more treasure in areas utterly different from
your field of activity than in those that on the face of it fall
into the same category.
I think that in the hedge fund business for example I've learnt
more in recent years from choirs, alternative wine makers that
break the rules, open source communities, the Rotary Club,
observations of artistic scenes, pondering what the punk Tom
Jennings told me back in the day, and so on than I have from
competitors in my field.
I think each language community is founded on its own unique
principles and trying to squash it onto a box that doesn't fit
isn't going to go anywhere.
D doesn't need a big corporate sponsor. It already has some
corporate sponsors and now there is a beginning made with the D
Foundation and enterprise adoption across many different sectors
it's just a matter of nourishing the beginning we have and
helping it unfold.
The idea of any corporate sponsor having much luck with
influencing the development of the language in a direction it
doesn't want to go anyway is most entertaining to contemplate.
Remedy Games asked for attributes I think - a really good idea -
and even then there was grumbling. Not that I mind the grumbling.
You know money is valuable but creative energy and involvement is
much more so, even though you can't eat the latter.
I am hoping in time that we would inspire others to see the
benefits of being involved and I think that will happen.
ICO sponsorship or from divers companies across many domains - I
know which one I think creates the best foundation for future
success.
I did try funding bounty source but there doesn't seem to be much
action there.
I hope Nim succeeds too - it looks like a nice language and it's
an amazing accomplishment for a small core team. Languages are
not after all in a battle to the death - life is not a zero-sum
game.
My biggest challenge right now is hiring more of the right kind
of programmers given that it takes a lot of time to find them the
conventional way and I would like to keep raising the bar and not
lower it.
It's a firm where people matter so if someone wants to work on
open source projects that are in a direction that helps the
direction of the firm one day a week then it's something we can
be open to for the right person.
And if we end up continuing to find more strong people via the D
community then it's easy to justify increasing our contribution.
Headhunters charge 20% of first year's salary, after all, and
they mostly don't have good taste and it ends up taking a lot of
time I don't have.
In a world where the system of credentials has broken down, what
is left that still works? Focal points, resonance, sample work,
and recognition by those who have reputation already.
Maybe in a decade we will be reminiscing about those wonderful
times before people realised there are great jobs in D. Success
ultimately attracts a different kind of person - every moment in
time is good for some purpose.
