| >Thousands of programmers giving away their professional advice, spending their valuable time…for what exactly? Imaginary internet points? Before Stackoverflow, people were answering questions on USENET newsgroups without any award of points. And before USENET and the internet, hobbyists would gather to trade advice on building home computers. E.g.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homebrew_Computer_Club The common theme isn't the points... it's that people like to be helpful and share knowledge. >Open source is another one: here’s my code that I’ve worked so hard on, spent countless hours on - please have it for free, my labor is worthless. There are multiple motivations for open source. In my case, I did it because I could get more value from the community's enhancements than the "free code" the community got from me. >It’s like they’re actively seeking to bring their own value down. Neither of your 2 examples look like erosion of labor value. On the contrary, it shows that not every activity associated with programming has to be driven by the exchange of money. |