Taking time for yourselfDaniel Silverstonehttp://yakking.branchable.com/posts/taking-time-for-yourself/yakkingikiwiki2017-08-17T19:53:05Z"blessed with ability"http://yakking.branchable.com/posts/taking-time-for-yourself/comment_1_34d2e8e5a908ade45dd1a56e06d02b2c/Gravious2017-08-17T09:19:53Z2017-08-17T09:19:53Z
<p>"Sadly, those of us who are blessed with the ability and the interest in contributing to F/LOSS"</p>
<p>I don't think this is done intentionally, but you seem to be suggesting
that programming is an ability some people are blessed with, at least
that's my interpretation of the above.</p>
<p>I profoundly disagree with that notion, and know it to be false through
personal experience of working with people with no prior programming experience.
The truth is there is really no special ability required, saying there is is akin
to what the intellectuals of the late 19th century were saying about literature.</p>
<p>Those intellectuals essentially responded to mass education by obfuscating
literature and art so that only they could understand it. I see the same
thing happening when people sneer at languages like Ruby that aim to make
things just a bit easier. It's a mirror image of the intellectuals sneering
at popular literature.</p>
<p>_why understood this, and wrote the poignant guide in response. It is maybe
slightly ironic, given folk's apparent perception of me as someone who is
against equality that I am now bringing this argument here.</p>
Perhaps a poor choice of wordshttp://yakking.branchable.com/posts/taking-time-for-yourself/comment_2_b542ef6e507f572364affaf0eda755d9/Daniel Silverstone2017-08-17T13:54:38Z2017-08-17T13:54:38Z
<p>Perhaps</p>
<blockquote><p>Sadly, those of us who are blessed with the ability and the interest in contributing to F/LOSS tend to work hard, and then effectively "work as play" hard too</p></blockquote>
<p>was a poor choice of words. The sense I was trying to get across was <strong>not</strong> that the ability to write code at all is something one gets blessed with, but more that some of are <em>privileged enough</em> to able to work on F/LOSS in our time, off our own backs, with our own money. In other words, that we have the <em>richness of time and energy</em> to work on F/LOSS. I feel in some sense blessed that I'm part of the tranche of society which has enough money, time, and facility to do this.</p>
<p>I trust that clarifies things for you.</p>
i don't followhttp://yakking.branchable.com/posts/taking-time-for-yourself/comment_3_2ea53b3a558f78ed9ad5b97edc9aecf0/Gravious2017-08-17T16:37:03Z2017-08-17T16:37:03Z
<p>I don't follow, are people privileged to be able to paint their garden shed a new colour at the weekend? Or write poetry in their free time? Or watch game of thrones in the evening? Or isn't that just a pretty standard expectation of what anyone can do in western society? Why do you think hacking on foss is some special privilege vs these other things?</p>
<p>I've written quite a bit of code in my free time, and I have to be honest with you, I don't really consider it a privilege to lock myself in a room at the weekend and bang out code, it's something I do mostly cause the way I look precludes me being able to date pretty ladies (let's just be honest here). I mean I enjoy it too, but I suspect that's due to me not being able to spend much time with the pretty ladies.</p>
<p>Also, why do you think you need money? The code I've produced over the years cost me exactly $0 to make,
maybe your argument is that I'm middle class or something and so have the time, that's true,
I am afforded that, but pretty much all people in a western society have <em>some</em> time for these things,
not as much as they should by the way, but that's another story.</p>
<p>And I don't really get what you mean by "facility" either to be honest...</p>
Privilege, Facility, and other termshttp://yakking.branchable.com/posts/taking-time-for-yourself/comment_4_15286ea0d82fe8fbe189f6dc1c166f38/Daniel Silverstone2017-08-17T19:53:05Z2017-08-17T19:53:05Z
<blockquote><p>I don't follow, are people privileged to be able to paint their garden shed a
new colour at the weekend? Or write poetry in their free time? Or watch game
of thrones in the evening?</p></blockquote>
<p>Most of these are examples of the privilege of having sufficient money to afford
the materials and services required to do this (though I'll admit writing poetry
likely requires the least in terms of material investment).</p>
<blockquote><p>Or isn't that just a pretty standard expectation of what anyone can do in
western society? Why do you think hacking on foss is some special privilege
vs these other things?</p></blockquote>
<p>It's a 'pretty standard expectation' for people in my (and perhaps your)
situation. People who are, to whatever extent, lucky (or whatever term you'd
prefer to use) enough to have free time (not a given), sufficient money (not a
given), sufficient space (not a given), and sufficient spoons (read about
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoon_theory">spoon theory</a> if this isn't a term you're familiar with).</p>
<blockquote><p>I've written quite a bit of code in my free time, and I have to be honest with
you, I don't really consider it a privilege to lock myself in a room at the
weekend and bang out code,</p></blockquote>
<p>It means you are privileged enough to have free time, a computer to 'bang out
code' on, the room in which to do that, the language facilities to understand
enough about what you're doing to be able to do that, the good fortune to have
had an education which enables you to understand and do it at all, and the
mental fortitude and energy to do that in the first place.</p>
<blockquote><p>it's something I do mostly cause the way I look precludes me being able to
date pretty ladies (let's just be honest here). I mean I enjoy it too, but I
suspect that's due to me not being able to spend much time with the pretty
ladies.</p></blockquote>
<p>I'm not touching this, I'm not in a position to discuss this kind of topic.</p>
<blockquote><p>Also, why do you think you need money? The code I've produced over the years
cost me exactly $0 to make,</p></blockquote>
<p>So you've never had to pay for the accomodation you used while coding? The
food you burned up in the process? The computer on which you did the work?
(And if you're using a computer provided by a workplace then I count that since
it's a form of remuneration to be permitted to do personal activities with a
work resource) Perhaps you haven't ever had to pay for any of that, in which
case you simply had a financial privilege not afforded to a huge number of
people who might otherwise be capable of doing FOSS work if they had been
afforded similar.</p>
<blockquote><p>maybe your argument is that I'm middle class or something and so have the
time, that's true, I am afforded that, but pretty much all people in a
western society have some time for these things, not as much as they should
by the way, but that's another story.</p></blockquote>
<p>I think you're massively overestimating the time, money, capability, spoons,
etc, available to the average member of "western society". Also I was trying to speak in
general, not just of "western society" which is an artificial narrowing of the
scope of the discussion, though one I can understand since you seek to
comprehend from the perspective of your lived experience.</p>
<blockquote><p>And I don't really get what you mean by "facility" either to be honest...</p></blockquote>
<p>Again I apologise, I thought it was clear that "facility" in this context meant
access to computer resources, a lack of language barrier with respect to
learning and participating in F/LOSS communities, a capability in a social
sense to participate, and indeed an environment which is conducive to the act
of producing software in the first place.</p>
<p>While this dicussion is interesting to me, I kinda feel like this isn't the
right forum to continue it. I also don't feel that I'm necessarily the right
person to attempt to widen your perspective on this (or indeed that I'm
necessarily <em>right</em> to be trying to do so). I ask that you consider any
questions posed in this response as rhetorical rather than as an attempt to
elicit a response and, unless you have a comment about another aspect of the
article, that you drop this line of discussion for now. Perhaps another
article will be posted in the future which you can engage on this topic with in
a more productive fashion.</p>
<p>Thank you for engaging with me on this, I think this comment thread will provide
a good reference for others who want to understand more about this topic area.</p>