For Passion or Profit
Simonyi, Charles
Himanen tries hard to prove otherwise. Bill Gates (head of Microsoft. Charles Simonyi For Passion or Profit chief Protestant) is quoted, as saying, "work hard[,] be intense and do your bestm-a...
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...What | about Himanen's claim that hackers have I good social skills--again something that I is a bit contrary to personal experience...
...I know for a fact PEKKA HIMANEN'S THE HACKER ETHIC that the word "passion" happens to be one of Gates's favorites, right up there B efore all else, I must estab- The heart of the "Open Source" with "intense...
...229 k._________-----.J Simply put, there is a lot to be said for a capitalist feedback loop whereby a portion of the reduction in the cost of ownership--the net value to the consumer-is fed back, by the action of the market, into production, which helps guide innovation.This is why it is better and easier to harness market forces than to try and breathe life into socialistic approaches...
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...Laura...
...Passion and p d t am not mutually exclusive...
...better than d-~ fiom the static, narrow, and old-fashoned **profitw model...
...On the other hand...
...Also enjoyable is the story hidden in the last endnote noticing the deep and generally underappreciated irony of how the successful Microsoft architecture is open while the competing Apple architecture is closed...
...98 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 9 June 2001...
...But this ignores what Pekka Himanen but in the linguistically neered by thousands of programmers is probably the key issue affecting the Open Source movement: the need fbr a Now, I know for a fact that the word "passion" happens to be one of Gates's favorites, right up there with "intense...
...so what...
...query: tel/fax: 541.459.6043 - elderberrypress@usa.net BUMPER STICKERS SUPPORT THE SCOUTS...
...What percentage of hack| ers work in the capitalist sector...
...Instead the I book is long on well-known, vaguely ! I relevant historical references from Plato, | through Milton, to Taylor and Robbins, | but short on the pros and cons of the | subject that its title promises...
...The older generation of cyberwhksllmnot worked simply to make a buck but because of an inner dnve, or, for lack of a better word...
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...so what...
...It would have been nice to learn more of the open development process--the sociology--the number of hours they work, how the hackers | finance their lives, exactly how the deci| sions are made, and so on...
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...So let's just suspend the rules and I'll simply say what I think...
...Though hackers haw been around since the mid-Sixties, / I-hmen mostly focus on the hackers j of the '*Open Sourceww movement...
...The for-profit sector would seem at a distinct disadvantage, or even doomed...
...Liberal arts degree and interest in economics preferred...
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...Is profit an end in itself or a up in ~u&e, not in Finland like &or non-proprietary, and collectively engi- means to an end...
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...I also work at Microsoft, which, according to the h k , is the "computer hacker's numberone enemyp' This, by the same rules...
...Linux is the life-force of the but to direct capital flows, to keep gramming wry much...
...The "Open Source" movement has to fight for attention, for customers, and for talent just like everybody else if it is to offer society a net benefit...
...Himanen's w e n t dut the new "hacker ethic" of"pasion" will mertake the old " b t a n t ethic" of "pm6t" is very di6icult to t o d ~ L L X his Protestant ethic model is a maw-m...
...would &squaIi@ me as being hopelessly biased...
...So Linux repmena for the "Open Source" movement something akin to cjber-socialiun...
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...I Random House, 288 pages, $24.95 I Charles Simonyi is a distinguished engineer at Microsoft Corporation...
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...You see the thesis of the book is that the old-fashioned "Protestant work ethic" of capitalism is being challenged by the new "hacker ethic" of non-proprietary computer programming and so-, driven by "passion" not "pro6t...
...THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR . June 2001 quality open code with free distribution...
...The brief discussion of the pioneering work of Richard Stallman was excellent and balanced...
...But even if Gates did lish two important facts: movement is Linux, a computer operat- not love the word...
...How the production process is financed and how the innovation that results in the reduction in the cost of ownership is directed are critical issues best addressed through capitalism...
...Fight for political integrity...
...Would that be too Protesmnt...
...S ~ o n d , I grew "Open Source" model in that it is h e . score...
...passion" motivational model, and he is clearly rooting for the "passion" crowd...
...But even if Gates did not love the word...
...Charles Simonyi For Passion or Profit chief Protestant) is quoted, as saying, "work hard[,] be intense and do your bestm-a statement Himanen considers shocking because Gates did not use the word "passion...
...But (there is that pesky word "but" that is hardly used by Himanen) the macroeconomic picture has not changed: There are still the costs of production, the resources consumed in the production process (such as BOOKS BECOME A PUBLISHED AUTHOR...
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...reliable and impartial feedback mechanism whereby the quality of the resulrs can be worked back into the production pmcess,which affects the Open Source community as much as any other...
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...Despite Himanen's high-falutin' typology, his thesis is little more than a simplistic "profit" vs...
...w o r l d - d . m e p-e Suppose an army of passion-heled, sell of ~i~~~ and osr super-talen ted hackers created highsupport fbr a price, Linux i d f is without ownership, it is a collectiw @. Because anyone with a @ idea can k l y conmibutthe theory goes--much Wter value d emerge h m the enthusiasm and "passion" of the pputlcipants...
...Himanen first, I' am a "hacker"- ing system started by the supremely ml- ignores the other chief function of i.e., someone who knows ented Finnish programmer Linus profit, not ody to motivate workers, and enjoys computer pro- Torvalds...
...passion...
...I There is an excellent bibliography, I I but curiously there is no indexmmaybe ] because the free indexing software is not I available yet...
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...How, for | example, is this fight for attention, for ! | talent, going...
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...T he book has some good touches...
...Owing to one of the sillier rules of political correctness, "speaking as a Hungarian-born hacker," I have now the authority to say all kinds of critical things about the Finnish Pekka Himanen and his new book nte Haker Ethic...
Vol. 34 • June 2001 • No. 5
