Some people like to plant vegetable and herb seeds to cultivate and cook 
with.
Some people like to program for many reasons.  Too many to list here but 
I see same type of cultivation with a programmer and his code to come to 
a complete product.

There are people who actually take pride in shining other people's 
shoes.  It's fulfiling and gives people who like doing what they do, 
something to do.

If you work on your yard and your neighbor works on his yard, what's the 
motivation? 

mattison20@cox.net wrote:

>Actually there is a book titled The Prisoner's Dilemma, by William
>Poundstone, that discusses game theory at length, and chronicles the career
>of John Von Neuman, father of the digital computer. A fascinating read. So
>yes, I know about game theory. But you really haven't suggested an
>alternative answer to my question. If we assume for the moment that the
>objective really is to make software a commodity (I think it already is) the
>question remains, why? As a programmer, what's in it for you? What's in it
>for all the programmers who contribute to open source projects? Or at least,
>what do they *think* is in it for them? I have yet to hear (read) anyone
>say, "I worked on X because I got Y as a result."
>--Phil M.
>
>  
>
>>It is probably best to study the social rationale and the economic
>>rationale soon follows.  You really should spend some time studying Game
>>Theory[0].  I think in the essence of even the most basic game theories
>>you see collaboration played out as the logical answer.  Something as
>>simple as the prisoner's dilemma[1] can demonstrate this.
>>    
>>
>
>
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