[adrianN]

They are selecting for people who are fine working in their free time. If you contribute to open source you are more likely to contribute to the company on weekends. If instead you have other hobbies or a family that takes up non-work hours you are more likely to drop your pen after forty hours.

[matheusmoreira]

Maybe they're selecting for intrinsic motivation. People who enjoy programming to the point they do it for fun, not just because it pays.

Free software work doesn't imply we work for free. We work on our projects, the stuff that we actually enjoy working on. Nobody is going to work on corporate products without adequate compensation.

[lukan]

"Nobody is going to work on corporate products without adequate compensation."

I guess there sadly are many nobodies who do this to hope to become somebody.

[matheusmoreira]

If the open source work is part of a hiring pipeline, sure. Contribute to some repository and have it serve as a resume that gets you hired is also a form of compensation. If the work is also enjoyable, then it's a win either way.

[emj]

You might have numbers on that but after working in a place with a strict no more than 40 hour policy my view is that people overwork for many reasons. Being an open source enthusiast is not one of them.

[stevesimmons]

I'm not sure that follows. I stopped making open source contributions when I switched from mature companies to startups.

Now all my "non-work" time is spent on startup work. And none of that is visible via GitHub.