Journal RealAlaskan's Journal: In defence of amateurs.
Today, we usually use the term ``professional'' to mean ``mercenary'', as in ``someone who does it for money''. ``Amateur'' is often used to mean: ``bad'', though its original meaning of: ``someone who does it for love'' is a better fit for most open-source developers.
In another field, mercenary soldiers work for the money, only, and in any field calling someone ``mercenary'' means that his heart isn't in his work. When it comes to sexual intercourse, most folks prefer the amateurs to the professionals.
I'm sure you could come up with some counter-examples to the idea that amateurs are generally better than professionals, so let me give you some examples. Newton, Pascal, Bayes, Einstein (Einstein did much of the preliminary work for his famous theories while a clerk for the Swiss Gov't, as I recall.) Lord Kelvin, the Darwins (Erasmus and Charles) and Galton spring to mind. I'm not sure whether Copernicus was paid to be an astronomer; he'd be a great example if not.
I agree that there are few Einsteins and Newtons in software development. There are few of them in the world, period. But my point is that in general, amateurs need not be inferior to mercenaries, in any field.
The astute reader will notice that many of these famous amateurs lived and worked in the 18th and 19th centuries. In earlier times, it was fashionable for the independently wealthy to indulge in scientific research. Today, there are few independently wealthy people who are willing to put in the years of intense, specialized work that is now required to get started in science.
Still, there are amateurs, people with much in common with Lord Kelvin and the Reverend Bayes, who are making contributions in many fields. Many of the people who we do not call amateurs today, because they are academics, paid to work in their fields, are amateurs in the sense that they do their research because it fascinates them, rather than because someone is paying them to punch the clock. This is why they are referred to as ``Professionals'': not because they accept money for their work, but because their work is a calling. This was what made those examples I gave amateurs: they didn't have to support themselves by their work.
This is an important strong point for amateurs: they can afford to be wrong, or to be right and ridiculed, or to do things which promise a lousy return on investment. What professional, in the mercenary sense of the word, can afford to take chances with his bread and butter? The academic world has tried to even the playing field between the academics and the amateurs with tenure, but I don't think they've been 100% successful.
Some people do their work because they love that work, some because they love that money. Which group do you think does the better work? Which group do you think is more likely to get personally involved in their work, and make new ideas, or new uses for old ideas? Which group is more likely to be found working on libre software in their spare time?
