Sometimes it feels like software development has devolved into a sea of posturing and marketing oneself. It's faintly depressing to see reminders of that trend which are as stark as this.
It's a fitting allegory, though. This contest has used free T-shirts to solicit open-source contributions in the same way that the industry has used high salaries to solicit creative and impactful contributions.
Now imagine that you're trying to fill a position, and these pull requests are analogous to candidate interviews. You might start to have some sympathy for people who believe that we need some sort of professional certification for the trade.
It's unfortunate considering the democratizing promise of low-cost computing, but how else can you effectively deal with this "market for lemons" caused by large swaths of people acting in blatant bad faith?
When seeming is taken for being, being becomes seeming. \
When nothing is taken for something, something becomes nothing.
It's a fitting allegory, though. This contest has used free T-shirts to solicit open-source contributions in the same way that the industry has used high salaries to solicit creative and impactful contributions.
Now imagine that you're trying to fill a position, and these pull requests are analogous to candidate interviews. You might start to have some sympathy for people who believe that we need some sort of professional certification for the trade.
It's unfortunate considering the democratizing promise of low-cost computing, but how else can you effectively deal with this "market for lemons" caused by large swaths of people acting in blatant bad faith?