Subj : Re: GNU Public Licences Revisited (again) To : comp.programming From : Antoon Pardon Date : Tue Sep 20 2005 07:39 am Op 2005-09-19, William schreef : > "Antoon Pardon" wrote in message > news:slrndita90.4tm.apardon@rcpc42.vub.ac.be... >> >> The glory. As far as I understand human nature, very few people try to >> invent something to get rich. Fame and glory seem to be more involved. > > I don't think the history of invention supports that idea very > well. Most of the industrial era's inventors had money on their > minds from early on. Otherwise, why would the Wright brothers, > for one example, have spent so much effort to guarantee a profit > from manned, powered flight? They could have gotten the glory > much more easily if they hadn't been so secretive for so long. I'm not so sure. The wright brothers were not the only ones trying to develop a flying machine. Going public too early might have given others a bigger chance to come with a superior design and thus win the glory. > The ones in it for the glory seem to have been those who were > wealthy enough not to need a paycheck. There weren't that many > of those. There is a difference between being motivated by the money and needing a pay-check to earn a living. > (The woman who invented the dishwasher springs to mind, > but having provided herself with an adequate tool to wash her > valuable dishes safely, further development seems to have been > purely profit-motivated. By whom? As far as I understand those that did the actual further developmant are mostly people in pay service. Now the firm hiring these people is probably motived by the profits they hope to earn from further development, but I'm not so sure about the people doing the devolpment. > That suggests the #2 reason to invent: > solve a problem for yourself; this moves the profit motive to > the "futher development" side of inventing.) And there is the pure pleasurement from solving a problem. -- Antoon Pardon .