Homo Economicus: Hollow Man?
Homo economicus, or Economic man, is the concept in some economic theories of man (that is, a human) as a rational and self-interested actor who desires wealth, avoids unnecessary labor, and has the ability to make judgments towards those ends.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_economicus
In my last post, I mentioned how many free (and good) resources are out there for software developers. These resources didn't just leap out out of the void into existence. Many people spend lots of time, mostly unpaid, producing them. So at first glance this behavior seems like a direct challenge to the economic man theory. It takes a lot of effort (labor) and does not produce a lot of wealth (being free).
One way to respond to this is to say that the economic man theory is hollow; that people are often best motivated not by money, but by other sources, such as craftsman's pride or a desire for community recognition and respect. So exit the rational, greedy man, enter the more enlightened open source hacker.
Or, maybe, enter the enlightened greedy man? Consider being an applicant for a desirable development position and being able to showcase a portfolio of your contributions that included tutorials and the source code for work you have done. I would guess that most of us don't own the code we write at work and probably cannot share it outside the organization.
It would be a definite leg up to have some code you could showcase freely. Furthermore, while working on a free resource you might end up connecting with someone who will either want to give you a job, work with you on your next one or go with you on your own new venture. Even within your current job, you might be able to argue yourself a raise in pay if you can show that your work is valued within a software community. Really, it might make economic sense to do this kind of work for "free."*
So, is the Economic man hollow or not? Being somewhat cynical (and aware of a certain level of concern over online reputation among the programmer crowd), I prefer the first response, that of the redefining wealth to include intrinsic values of craftsmanship and social status. Besides, would a bunch of pure profit seekers start nearly as many entertaining flame wars?
*For the purposes of full disclosure, I will note that my own argument has not convinced myself to contribute to the pool of free resources. Hopefully it will be more persuasive to you, the reader, who can continue to provide with me interesting free content and projects.