> they (and the world in general) would be better off to just spend their spare time volunteering or reading books or hiking or having coffee with friends
But those aren't the viable alternatives! These aren't typically wealthy people with time on their hands, they're people trying to find a good place for themselves in the economy by working on something that they think people will like. The real alternative is working for a bigger company, in which their marginal contribution may or may not be more useful to themselves and society, depending on the company, and on their role in it. It's possible to do something useful either as a big cog in a small machine or a small cog in a big machine, but there's no guarantee either way.
What I'd really like to see would be more "small businesses" and fewer "startups", but the economics of the software industry at the moment don't seem to encourage that.
"What I'd really like to see would be more 'small businesses' and fewer 'startups', but the economics of the software industry at the moment don't seem to encourage that."
My guess is that there are currently many more small software businesses than startups, but we don't hear a lot about them because (1) they're targeting business segments that we're not familiar with (e.g., writing accounting software for law practices, or creating web-based front ends for legacy COBOL systems) and (2) the media doesn't find them compelling enough to report on.
But those aren't the viable alternatives! These aren't typically wealthy people with time on their hands, they're people trying to find a good place for themselves in the economy by working on something that they think people will like. The real alternative is working for a bigger company, in which their marginal contribution may or may not be more useful to themselves and society, depending on the company, and on their role in it. It's possible to do something useful either as a big cog in a small machine or a small cog in a big machine, but there's no guarantee either way.
What I'd really like to see would be more "small businesses" and fewer "startups", but the economics of the software industry at the moment don't seem to encourage that.