Okay, as the title might suggest, this isn't stricly a Perl question, but since (IMHO) Perl programmers are often among the most friendly (read, "here use MY code") hackers out there, I think this forum is as good as any for this Meditation.

I seem to battle with myself often over the thought that money is a poor motivator for hacking well. In fact, even a friend of mine and I agree that since we started working for the man it's taken a lot of fun out of the creative process of the self-education and exploration that hacking promotes. It seems like a lot of what I do with computers, even at home, is "work".

I've thought to myself time and again that I would like to find a free software project to join, and wonder if others here can share their experiences in free software.

Some thoughts I'm curious to compare are:

• Would you also agree that money is a poor motivator for producing good code?
• Do you find that the free software you develop overall tends to provide a better learning experience/more fun/more satisfying than your day job?
• Do you have any particularly interesting anecdotes to share about your experiences in free software?
• Can a career in free software development a.) be possible, b.) be more fruitful (happiness-wise) than proprietary development?

For myself, I've never been the type to agonize over money. I value my happiness and creative satisfaction far above a new car (but hey, I like that one :). I personally believe that money is a terrible motivator for anything creative, and think that the idea of having to show up at 7:30 AM under the assumption that I'm ready to think is something about my lifestyle that may need to change quickly (as in, work for myself).

I also feel that if I were to join a useful (as in, "something I could use") software project I would learn much more than where I am in my current situation (doing Powerbuilder and SQL...ugh), have much more fun, and contribute to something that I've always believed in: that being that money isn't a good stimulus for creative endeavours.

I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts with regards to any of the above questions, and by all means anything else you'd like to add.

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