Patri's Journal: Current

This is Patri's current journal. It is kept on LiveJournal as patrissimo, but you are reading the archived copy on patrifriedman.com.

Programmers and Bees (comment on this entry at LiveJournal)

Entry Date: 2004-07-29 02:18:00 Logged: 2004-07-29 02:21:51
Current Mood: Current Music:
Orson Scott Card's classic parable about nurturing coders and why software companies eventually die:

Here's the secret that every successful software company is based on: You can domesticate programmers the way beekeepers tame bees. You can't exactly communicate with them, but you can get them to swarm in one place and when they're not looking, you can carry off the honey. You keep these bees from stinging by paying them money. More money than they know what to do with. But that's less than you might think. You see, all these programmers keep hearing their fathers' voices in their heads saying "When are you going to join the real world?" All you have to pay them is enough money that they can answer (also in their heads) "Geez, Dad, I'm making more than you." On average, this is cheap.
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