This isn't so much about romanticizing open source and "true artists", but more about frequent myopia of finance. Did an artist, who became famous posthumously, somehow improve after their death? I think it's bad form to use marketability as the lone measure of value.
Alexey ________________________________ From: Chris Adamson <[email protected]> To: The Java Posse <[email protected]> Sent: Fri, May 13, 2011 11:35:41 AM Subject: [The Java Posse] Re: Is Apple is winning the PC war? I think it bears selective but thoughtful application to other arts and trades. Is the penniless busker always better than the shiny pop star? Is the starving painter always better than Disney staffer? We romanticize doing stuff for the love of the trade -- "amateur" literally comes from the French "amateur", meaning "lover of -- but shouldn't we also give props to reaching an audience, especially one that is so appreciative that it's willing to pay for art (and thereby keep the artist clothed and fed)? That gets to Tim's point: having to make money off something usually does mean needing to make it valuable to someone, and that's a mightily efficient way to weed out useless pursuits. Of course, the next step in this thread's discussion is usually to say that Apple is making so much money because people are stupid and are just misled by "marketing" and shiny things. Cue response in 3, 2, 1... --Chris On May 13, 11:24 am, Alexey Zinger <[email protected]> wrote: > That's a valid, but very limiting point of view, I think. I hope you wouldn't > apply the same model to pursuits like mathematics or art. Where does computer > science land in all this then? > > Alexey > > ________________________________ > From: Chris Adamson <[email protected]> > To: The Java Posse <[email protected]> > Sent: Fri, May 13, 2011 11:17:24 AM > Subject: [The Java Posse] Re: Is Apple is winning the PC war? > > On May 12, 10:55 pm, Cédric Beust ♔ <[email protected]> wrote: > > > I find this pretty typical in discussions involving Apple. Whenever the > > exchanges start discussing numbers, Apple enthusiasts tend to quickly dig in > > with a "I don't care, Apple makes tons of money which means they're great". > > Tim O'Reilly, from "Rules Of Thumb" <http://tim.oreilly.com/pub/a/ > oreilly/tim/articles/thumb_pref.html?page=2>: > > If I were to boil my company vision down to one sentence, it would be > this: "To make money doing interesting and worthwhile things." > > Why "to make money"? Well, money is the fuel for the whole system. It > makes the rest possible. What's more, there is a wonderful rigor in > free-market economics. When you have to prove the value of your ideas > by persuading other people to pay for them, it cleans out an awful lot > of wooly thinking. I think often of Alexander Pope's comment about > writing poetry in rhymed couplets. He said that funnelling his > creativity through such a narrow aperture made it shoot out like water > from a fountain. > > Why "interesting and worthwhile"? Oddly enough, while dull people find > very little to be of interest, intelligent people find almost anything > interesting. (Curiosity is the wellspring of intelligence.) And so > there are many things that can be interesting that do not add a great > deal of value to the world. Adding the proviso that what we do be > worthwhile in some larger sense limits our selections a bit, but like > the need to make money, actually improves the chances of happiness at > what we do. > > -- end quote -- > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The > Java Posse" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group >athttp://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
