The Simple Economics of Open Source

[Juergen A. Erhard]

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>>>>> "Andrew" == Andrew Dalke <dalke at acm.org> writes:

[...]

    Andrew>   I'm walking down the street and there is a hole in my
    Andrew> front pocket.  I keep money in that pocket.  I have a hand
    Andrew> in that pocket because it's cold, and I'm jostling the
    Andrew> money.  As I pass a beggar, some money falls out through
    Andrew> the hole.  It is altruistic or an accident?  The only way
    Andrew> to find out is to ask me, and I can lie, so there's no
    Andrew> observational way to tell the difference.  Thus, I
    Andrew> considered the definition of "altruistic", when used in
    Andrew> this extreme case, to be useless.

*You* still know what it was... and that is ultimately what counts.

If a tree falls in the forrest and no-one is there to witness it, did
it still fall?  Of course it did.

And of course you know whether it was an accident or intentional.

We're talking motivation here...

Bye, J

- -- 
Jürgen A. Erhard      eMail: jae at ilk.de      phone: (GERMANY) 0721 27326
          My WebHome: http://members.tripod.com/Juergen_Erhard
           "Outside of a dog, a man's best friend is a book;
           inside of a dog, it's very dark." --  Groucho Marx
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