[scottrogowski]

My argument was not about one person being disappointed by expecting value and getting none - it was a broader point about the cultural encouragement - prevalent in engineering circles - of working for free.

To be specific - I think a good argument could be made for free development in the service of the underprivileged or other altruistic causes. However, a large portion or most development ends up benefitting large public corporations who make large profits. But because, as a culture, we encourage this work, we have basically set ourselves up to be exploited.

I recognize that this is an unpopular opinion and is difficult to make well, in a thread, without being downvoted. But I think there is always value at questioning our underlying cultural assumptions.