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Comment by cotix | Hacker News Reader

You can, infact, make a living with playing video games. I wonder how you would feel if I said developing is a big hobby of mine, a leisure activity, and a very rewarding one actually. You should not make money from that, get a real job, and practice your development hobby for its own sake.

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Yes, I know you can. Just as you can make money making music. The important word here is "can". You are not however entitled to it. A lucky few gets paid but that's an extreme privilege you shouldn't take for granted.

The difference with development is that no-one questions the business model. You code and get paid for it while music is a completely different story. Before I became a professional developer I coded for fun and was happy with that. If the market would be like music (where 99% of artists cannot make a living out of it) then yes, I would say exactly that.

Nobody is "entitled" to make a living from making music. However, everyone is entitled to say "I have created some music. In exchange for some money I will give you a copy of this music".

You say "no-one questions the business model" which is clearly false. Have you never heard of a developer being asked to work for free (or equity) on someone else's idea? IMHO that's the same as you saying musicians should be grateful to earn any money from their work.

I hold the opinion you should not be paid to make software, in most cases, in this era. It tends to be an instrument for control and manipulation.

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So what's your economically sensical alternative?

Communism.

Cool. I don't agree, but at least you own it. =)

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