Curious attitude. I’ve always found that the people who have the most “valuable” spare time are the most willing to give some of that to help others - because they understand what true value means - which is nothing at all to do with money and everything to do with connection and community.
But yeah, some people value their spare time in dollar amounts, and they’ll never get beyond a hustle and grind “hourly rate” mindset.
Yeah abstain from having a life and a family just so you can afford to spend your days hacking on other people's websites for free as a hobby or something.
Come now. Plenty of people on HN insist in AI threads that artists and creatives should only work for passion and love and not corrupt the purity of their craft with the vulgar drive to make money. Suffering and hunger only drive one to greater innovation after all. So why not apply that philosophy to tech as well?
When so much of the web is currently being destroyed by capitalist incentives, shouldn't we go back to the days when quirky nerds just built and maintained websites as a hobby? Why should any of us be paid for any of this when money ruins everything?
In fact most really good lawyers deliberately take pro bono cases to expose them to legal thinking they might not otherwise encounter. Solving problems and applying your expertise to things you wouldn’t normally trip over is a great way to enhance what you are doing day to day.
And that’s why people volunteer to do stuff that might not seem “worth it” - because if you’re an expert in something you can always learn more by looking at it through a different lens.
This, obviously, is aimed at the upstream comment not yours!