As a technical person myself, I have no ill will towards the word “programmer” and don’t even think it’s a good term. “engineer” would be more appropriate.
But since I started a paid column, I have come into contact with a special group of people. I don’t think they are “engineers”, but they do write programs for a living, so I can only call them “programmers”.
At the same time they have all the characteristics of people’s mouth “leek”, so I think these people can be called “leek programmer”, I analyzed a variety of characteristics and causes of their body, do not spit fast.
A post on V2EX, a community of coders, appeared yesterday about a “former Google engineer” who is making a lot of money by paying for his knowledge, and who felt like he had a “broken heart.”
The poster also raised questions about the identity of the engineer who made the money, and it appears that others have followed up with questions about how many people signed up for the paid course and the identity of the engineer who ran it. All in all, they want to “overthrow the blood-sucking capitalism”.
Here’s a paid lesson from the Pot from the Sky:
For those who are obsessed with similar things, I think there are several reasons for those who are indignant when they see their peers making money by paying for knowledge:
- The same kind of work, they work overtime every day to death, but also can not make a house down payment. You hardly need reason to feel bad when you see other peers making seven figures with ease.
- Although the content of someone else’s output, they may not be able to do, but similar content, there are online. “Data structures and Algorithms”, which I learned in college. Why would you sell it for money
- No rape is not business, the people who opened the class must be false identity, the platform to sell the class must be false sales, the people who spent the money must be cheated by you.
What makes them leek programmers is that they fail to understand a very basic concept: information is not free
A lot of people see the Internet blots out a variety of dry goods, tutorials, do not pay, casually look, feel that what is free, search engine a search, the world is my.
But these people didn’t notice:
- The writer may be building blog popularity to help him or her find a job later.
- Websites and apps that display articles may have portals that require a membership to read more articles;
- Websites that display blogs may have small, inconspicuous ads;
- Website editors waste the effort, just pull the article author to this platform to continue to output content, build heat;
All free content has a real price tag behind it. It takes you two search terms, three websites, and five minutes to find a free tutorial. The process itself shows that this tutorial is not free.
You think it’s free just because your time and energy are worthless. At least you don’t think your time and energy are worth anything.
The mineral water in the big supermarket costs 80 cents a bottle, and the convenience store downstairs sells it for 2 YUAN. In the Sahara desert, it may sell for 200, 000 yuan. Is it because they are rich or heartless that they want to pit you? I picked up a rock from the ground and sold it to you for 500W. Am I going to screw you over?
Free trade without the concept of “pit”, if I really glib, in the light of interests, risk, let you 500W bought a broken stone, what does this show? It shows that I accumulated knowledge in the early stage and practiced in the later stage, and finally asked you to pay for 500W. The value of this event is more than 500W, at least 5,010%, because you will pay only if you think its value is higher than 500W. Otherwise, there is no need to waste time on equivalent exchange.
As long as there is a transaction in a free state, both sides must think they are getting a good deal.
Not to mention that others are really in the output of real knowledge, teach you knowledge. Even if it takes two hours to put together a basic tutorial for dummies. As long as it’s marked, as long as no one’s forcing you to pay.
Then, they have crossed the gap of information asymmetry, they have reduced the uneven distribution of knowledge resources, and they should earn this money.
If you know how to find a free tutorial, some people don’t know it, and some people are willing to pay $68 for it, then the thing you know is worth $68, but they practice it, they advertise it, they sell it for $68 one after another, and they cash in their knowledge, that’s all.
If you don’t fill the information asymmetry ditch, someone else does. That’s a good thing. And of course you could say, the free stuff is not advertised, the paid stuff is advertised, so the same stuff, the paid stuff is known by more people. The fact that “more people know” is itself a big contribution. Information is not free!
Think back, are there a lot of people around, when they see some software to buy, they are surprised to reply with “how can you ask for money? !”
“Asking for money with a stupid App?” “See you an article unexpectedly want money?” “Asking for money for dinner?” “Taxi unexpectedly want money?” “Asking for money at the supermarket checkout?”
Encounter such, habitually screen, take off, retreat from the group, avoid it.
“You’re useless.”
Leek programmers like to say, “You’re useless.”
What is useful and what is not?
Chanel 15W a bag, white to straight male programmers, this bag in addition to can take to sell, take to give people, useful?
Programmers like the mechanical keyboard, electrostatic capacity keyboard, you usually go out to the street to carry a 15W bag lady, she will think this useful?
A very basic concept in economics is that “values are not comparable”.
The value that a commodity can provide varies not only from person to person, but also from person to person in different states. How much was a course on data structures worth when you were just getting started with computers? After you’ve mastered data structures and ACM has won a medal, how much is this class worth?
‘Capitalism with Blood’
Chives programmers also like to say, “Capitalism with blood.”
- Moutai once restricted the retail price of moutai liquor to a certain price – “capitalism with blood”
- Dairy farms dump milk into rivers – “Capitalism with Blood”
- Chanel burns all the luxuries she can’t sell – “Capitalism with Blood”
It never occurred to them to inquire into the truth.
Moutai limits the minimum retail price because high-end wine suppliers provide better service. If someone offers a low price, customers will enjoy the service from high-end wine suppliers and then purchase from low-price suppliers, which will lead to vicious low-price competition and destroy Moutai’s market positioning.
Dairies dump milk because the market price is no longer enough to pack it, freeze it and sell it. If you go to a dairy and ask for free milk, you may be willing to give you a pail of milk or a truckload of milk without having to dump it yourself.
If Chanel discounts luxury goods, it will destroy the high-end image they have painstakingly built for years, so they have to destroy it when they can’t sell it. That’s why luxury brands often charge high prices for things like shoelaces and spoons — because selling cheap ruins their image.
But these things are too complicated to understand for the leeks, so a unique breed of leeks, the leeks programmers, who are not too interested in luxury goods or Maotai, may be a little interested in technical courses, so once the technical courses start charging, their keyboards are ready to open.
Garbage man law
The law of garbage man comes from a star’s response to people from online media. It describes a person who has a lot of negative garbage and needs to find a place to dump his garbage. There are a lot of negative garbage people in the world, they need to find a place to dump their garbage, sometimes people just happen to walk in on them and throw their garbage at people.
Run into leek, have no other way, garbage person law often come true.
Stay away, stay away…
Those who want dry goods look here:
I am an experienced indie developer and have a paid column called KyXu to Teach you how to Make Money from Indie development
Want to see it for free here:
The author has maintained a wechat official account on independent development for a long time. Sometimes, I also write some personal thoughts similar to this article. Welcome to follow, ID: KyXuIndie