Giving it Away for Free

I was talking with a pal of mine yesterday out back in his workshop. He was making a beautiful piece of furniture and I was going on about the world which, of course, eventually led to a discussion of computer operating systems, open source, that kind of thing.

We talked as Frank labored on; his piece really was looking beautiful. He cut himself quite a bit with chisels and other tools, but he liked that. He said, "Now this piece has my blood. Now it's right" I had to agree. In the past I was a carpenter and found my hands really getting chewed up on my finest work. I've cut my fingers playing my heart out on my bass guitar, too, and those were my finest moments. There was (is) a sense of satisfaction from the injuries, though. Sure, they're superficial and small, no worries, but they bleed. They bleed right into that magnificent piece that is being made (or played) and you know, then, that the piece has a part of you in it. It's got soul now.

Anyway, as Frank finished his piece, a beautiful entry bench/hall tree for coats and all that, I could see that he was satisfied with it. He gave a sort of smug smile to himself that he thought I didn't catch. It was beautiful and he is very skilled. Moreover he puts love and himself into everything he makes, a real craftsman. As we both oooh'd and ahhh'd over it and ran our fingers over it I asked him, "So, Frank, how much you gonna sell this bad-boy for?" Frank just smiled. "I'm not selling this, I can't. You know, it's too much of me, to much soul, too much devotion. I could never sell this, I'd either keep it for myself or give it to someone I loved."

"So, Frank, you mean like those Open Source developers?", I asked. And he smiled again. He got it. His smile got crooked and he said, "Yeah, ya bastid, just like those open source developers." You could almost see his epiphany.

People often ask - how good can free software be? How can someone just give it away? Well, if you've never carved anything with love or spent days and weeks and maybe even months and years laboring over something, then you'll never understand. When you make a thing with love, put yourself into it, it's very hard to appraise it to be sold. Oof. It's like selling your kid or something. Just ain't gonna happen. Now, giving it away is perfectly acceptable and that's usually how it's done. It's very simple to understand how open source developers can give software away for free to the community. They love the community.

Doing something for a fee usually entails pleasing someone else. Not you, not the craftsman. No soul, just a project to complete for a paycheck.

It took a thug (and I say that with affection) to remind me of this. A badass with a troubled past and a heart-of-gold to lead me through the quagmire of every-day life and show me again something I always knew, but somehow let get buried by toil and loathing. Because this is (mostly) his story, not mine.

--machiner, awed by the truth of it all. 14 Nov 08

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