Top Talent for Free

[Kevin Kinsey]

Jason C. Wells wrote:
> Something occured to me recently when I was listening the the Mormon 
> Tabernacle Choir sing Handel's Messiah the other day.  There is no 
> shortage of top talent willing to perform some tasks for free.  In this 
> particular case, one could argue that some of the very best in the world 
> are singing for free.  Many musicians work for free in well established 
> orchestras, for example in Seattle where I paid money to hear Messiah.
> 
> It seems like the same is true for open source.  There are some very 
> clever people right here in the FreeBSD community.  Some are more widely 
> known (jkh, Watson, McKusick) than others but all of them are very 
> good.  Some open source developers have turned their open source 
> involvement into a lucrative gig.  But many remain volunteers.
> 
> Then you have situations like football here in the US or even football 
> as you call it everywhere else.  There is no shortage of top talent in 
> these sports.   These people command sizable incomes in this effort though.
> 
> So what's the difference?  How do some fields of endeavor get top talent 
> for free and other fields of endeavor pay big bucks for the top talent?  
> Certainly we could find footballers to play on TV for free.

1]  Love of the field of endeavor.
2]  Idealism.
3]  Knowing it's a pipe dream to get paid for it anyway.

My $0.02,

-- 
Any man who hates dogs and babies can't be all bad.
		-- Leo Rosten, on W.C. Fields