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Comment by meesterdude | Hacker News Reader

> When I bought my first house, using money earned from co-founding a software company, I couldn’t believe that such abstract work could be exchanged for something so big and tangible, hewn from forests and rocks by people sweating in the sun.

I've been writing software for years, and it still feels like magic. People work 3x as hard as me and I make 3x as much as them. Many make real, physical things; i just type away on a keyboard. With the right incantations, you can build something that's worth millions. Just you, in your free time, creating something that can be used by the entire world.

Always reminds me of this louie CK interview on conan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEY58fiSK8E

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I definitely had the eureka moment when I was younger. When I was in high school I worked with my sister to sell t-shirts that we designed online. The shirts were designed in photoshop, designs given to our supplier who printed them on demand to ship directly to our customers. Shirts were listed on eBay, payment made through paypal or direct deposit, and all communication with customers and suppliers was through email. At no point did we touch the product or even have a phone call with anyone.

After a couple of months we took out our first profit, which I think I spent some of it on an ipod classic. I was 14, and through clicking buttons and moving my mouse I now had an ipod in my hands that was all mine. That was magic.

It embarrasses me that less physical effort grants me a more valuable reward. This probably just reflects my laborer upbringing.

I put together a few lines today that automates a 5-minute process. Across the scope of a few thousand servers, this obviates about 6.25 weeks of labor. It really does feel magical.

> It embarrasses me that less physical effort grants me a more valuable reward

Why? Just because you work hard doesn't mean you deserve more

> Just because you work hard doesn't mean you deserve more

Its a major element of the ideology associated with the Protestant work ethic, which has an important role in American culture -- and ties intimately into the way large parts of the more successful population can dismiss the less successful as being so as a result of choice and moral failing -- that hard work both does, in fact, and should, in moral ideal, result in material success.

Even lots of people who intellectually reject the position are have been to some degree socialized in it and feel some dissonance when contrary facts are particularly palpable.

"If you work harder you will be more successful" is the fundamental axiom of American conservatism. Of course I can't speak for everyone, but the primary reason to oppose a social safety net is "those people are poor because they aren't working hard enough." This requires a belief that hard(er) work is and should be rewarded better.

I'd say your claim is nonobvious. That the world is fundamentally fair, and that hard work is the most important aspect of virtue, are deep ideas in American culture and very much tied up with the American Dream (TM).

Contemporary liberals typically challenge the "world is fundamentally fair" part, appealing to structural *-ism that makes this untrue for people other than white men born to financially secure parents.

Few (economists, maybe) would argue that how hard you work does not influence how much you deserve.

I would. For example, no matter how hard you work lifting a rock and setting it back down again, it produces no value and so nobody is going to pay you for it.

(Ironically, people pay to lift weights at the gym, they don't get paid to! It's pretty darned hard work, too.)

"Work" in this context would be your job, not things you do on your own initiative.

But how many hundred, or thousand hours did it take for you to learn enough to be able to write those few lines?

The single most important human skill is mastery of language. You wouldn't even know what the word 'labor' means if your ancestors didn't know how to use language effectively. And that's what software is all about.

The product of your work does more than 3x what you could do by yourself though, that's why it's valued more / differently. A similar argument would be made for effective organizers and the force multiplication of coordinated work.

likewise, almost anyone can chop wood or swing a hammer to break rocks.... no just anyone can write high quality code.

A power saw can do the work of a thousand men chopping wood - making the designer/builder of such a machine worth more compensation than the chopper.

Also programming skill is rare compared to the opportunity to apply it and this gives us negotiating power. In commerce, you don't get what you deserve; You get what you negotiate for.

That's because it's not how hard you work, it's how effectively you work. Writing software has a lot of leverage.

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