I've been thinking about something a lot today. I think it's a microcosm of a big problem with the way many average people move through the world.
Why do so many software engineers hate paying for software?
I've been thinking about something a lot today. I think it's a microcosm of a big problem with the way many average people move through the world.
Why do so many software engineers hate paying for software?
@polotek My gut says that most *people* don't, because the VC bubble has taught us that apps are free. Software engineers just aren't that different.
It doesn't help that many of us are building free apps for consumers, internal tools, or B2B stuff. Those environments don't necessarily teach the intuition that, yeah actually, it makes sense to pay $50/yr for YNAB or $200 for OmniFocus or whatever. Because what we learn from our jobs is "apps are free" and "paid software is for businesses".
I know that most people's first pithy thought is "they think they can build it themselves". But I don't buy it. Most software develops know how hard it is to build solutions that actually feel polished and usable. Our laptops are literally graveyards of projects that never get completed.
What I'm saying that if anybody in the world understands why good software is worth paying real money, it should be us. But that's often not the case. Why?
@polotek Do they believe that the money would go to the devs?
I pay for indie games but I don't want to give Microsoft, Apple or Google any of my money if I can help it, they have enough.
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