Actually, in my experience, it's the opposite of William's statement.
Maybe I'm alone on this. Don't know.
But, I can't stop counting the number of times that "necessity" came
from having *very little* investment but *having *to essentially get a
return on it to do silly little things like keep dishing out payroll.
Guerilla marketing, novel uses for obscure hardware, "poor man's"
version of six-figure enterprise systems that turn into new software
ideas, etc, etc, etc.
That happened repeatedly in every startups I've been involved with.
I guess one of the possible ways this conversation may get muddled is:
are we just talking creativity or innovation or both, since they are so
closely tied?
On 5/5/2011 8:59 AM, [email protected] wrote:
"The more you look to what you do as having to provide a return on investment,
getting
paid for your efforts. Your creativity can go out the door a little bit."
I think that sentence should have been in "bold"!
A little greed is always good, but when it becomes all consuming ... there's
diminishing returns as well:) All of us have been around long enough to see
this phenomena is action, whether it comes to writing code where "time" becomes
the driving factor or the whole process is subverted to meet a deadline.
I think it's important to be "passionate" about what you do. Money will follow
... perhaps?
Indika
----- Original Message -----
From: "William L. Thomson Jr."<[email protected]>
To: "Jax-LUG"<[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, May 4, 2011 5:05:53 PM
Subject: Hobbyist or professional
When it comes to computers, the lines between hobbyists and
professionals is really blurry. To a point I lean more toward hobbyists
than professionals, with the following three examples as my argument
there. Though likely can produce more than 3.
Was Steve Wozniak a hobbyist or professional when he was building
computers in Steve Jobs's garage? Sure he was working for HP, but was
building computers a profession or hobby for him? What was the result of
that? Apple
Lets take a more modern example, which is covered in a recent movie,
that I have yet to see. Was Mark Zuckerberg a hobbyist or professional?
What was the result of those efforts? Facebook
How about another example more specific to this list and users group.
Was Linus Torvalds a professional or hobbyist? Keep in mind it was
supposed to be called Freak. What was the result of Linus efforts? Linux
What ever happened with the professional interest behind IBM's OS/2?
That was never developed by nor targeted for sale to hobbyists, just
professionals.
It has come up a few times before if the JaxLUG caters to hobbyist or
professionals. Which in that process hobbyists tend to get discounted
and discarded as unimportant. When if anything professionals should be
discounted more. Quite many things with computers, and surely with Linux
started out more as a hobby than profession, later turning into a
profession. Thus if this was a chicken/egg scenario, the hobbyist
clearly must come before the professionals.
From my own experience, I feel I might have been more creative and
thinking out of the box. When I was less of a professional. The more you
look to what you do as having to provide a return on investment, getting
paid for your efforts. Your creativity can go out the door a little bit.
After all your not doing it out of passion, but out of the need or want
for money.
Not to mention with regard to the JaxLUG, hobbyists likely have more to
contribute and benefit than professionals. After all professionals want
that to relate to their work, pocket book, etc more than a hobbyists.
Not to underestimate or discount the importance or value of
professionals. I am just tired of hobbyists being seen as a negative
thing. There are likely considerably more hobbyists than professionals
end of the day. Thus its a bigger market, with greater potential.
Finally its not like this area is known for its technology or
creativity. I think we should look more at what made that happen in
others areas. It wasn't the contributions and things coming from the
professional world so much as others. Lets keep that in mind, and not be
on a professional high horse :)
Anyway just some food for thought, and discussion.
P.S.
Can't believe a movie was made on Facebook, where is the one on Apple or
Google or other companies that have effected many more lives on a daily
basis? Clearly pop culture wins again :(
Really good movie to see, the "Pirates of Silicon Valley". Or the old
documentary by Walter Cronkite called "Silicon Valley: A 100 Year
Renaissance" Or "OS Revolution" which was played at a JaxLUG meeting
back in 2003 I believe. Likely many others, and if others have
suggestions welcome to mention them. I highly recommend the first two,
and might seem a bit dated. Bit the history remains and doesn't change.
--
_________________________________
*PAUL TISEO, President*
*METACODE* Studios, Inc.
[email protected]
PH: (904) 994-7029
http://www.metacodestudios.com/
